A man looks at a fallen tree knocked over by wind and rain from Hurricane Beryl in Houston on July 8. Photo by Carlos Ramirez/EPA-EFE
July 15 (UPI) — Nearly 184,000 Houston-area residents remain without power, one week after Hurricane Beryl struck the state, and the main utility, CenterPoint, expects electricity to be restored to 98% of affected residents by Wednesday.
This comes amid an investigation launched by the state regulator, the Public Utility Commission, on CenterPoint’s power failures and response.
Those without electricity are about one-quarter of the nearly 700,000 affected on Saturday.
About 2.26 million CenterPoint customers initially didn’t have electricity after the Category 1 hurricane killed at least 10 people in the Lone Star state.
Poweroutage.us lists 183,867 customers in the state without power, including 160,973 with CenterPoint, on Monday night.
CenterPoint serves 2.6 million in the state. Overall, there are 13.8 million customers.
“We know the remaining customers are counting on us and are committed to restoring power to all remaining customers able to receive it,” Lynnae Wilson, a vice president for CenterPoint, said in a statement to The Houston Chronicle. “As we close in on the remaining outages, customers should ensure that there isn’t damage to their weatherheads and are able to receive power.”
A weatherhead bridges the gap between a power line and a customer’s property.
“Our restoration crews are now converging on remaining areas with significant structural damage as well as localized outages to get the lights back on for those customers who are without power,” CenterPoint said in a Sunday statement.
The utility, which has been criticized by customers and government officials for its response time and communication issues, said it is conducting “a thorough review of our response to support our customers and our community, especially when they need us most.”.
The PUC, the state regulator, announced it is investigating the situation. Chairman Thomas Gleeson said the commission’s staff will recommend changes CenterPoint can make before the hurricane season is over on Nov. 30. And the agency will report to Gov. Greg Abbott and legislative leaders in December on potential changes to state law.
“I think it’s clear the quality of their infrastructure, their ability to maintain that infrastructure, and their communication with their customers has been called into question,” Gleeson said at a news conference with state and local leaders.
Abbott said Monday: “CenterPoint has completely dropped the ball” on restoring power.
The governor set a July 31 deadline for the company to give him recommendations to improve response to a situation like the one with Beryl.
Houston restaurants have filed a class action lawsuit against CenterPoint after they lost power.
Houston’s light rail lines all began operating again Monday.
Elsewhere, parts of Galveston are also without power, including Isla Del Sol, Sea Isle and Jamaica Beach.
Most of the power lines are above ground.
According to CenterPoint, in the Houston area, there are 21,763 miles of underground distribution lines and 26 miles of underground transmission lines.
“Transmission circuits are extraordinarily expensive, far more so than the ones behind your house,” Don Russell, an engineer who teaches at Texas A&M, told KPRC-TV in May.
The estimated cost is several billion dollars, according to researchers.
In Florida, the main utility, Florida Power & Light, is working to bury more lines.
Since 2018, the company has focused on its Storm Secure Underground Program, which replaces the overhead power lines in neighborhoods with underground lines.
“I think it’s important to know that there’s no system that is fully hurricane proof or ever will be hurricane proof,” FPL spokesperson Conlan Kennedy said to GulfShore Business. “When a hurricane or a big storm strikes, there will be outages, and it’s really important for customers to prepare for that.”
That includes implementing underground power lines to about 90% of new neighborhoods.