Following Hurricane Beryl’s large-scale power outages, state officials launched an investigation and legislative hearings to scrutinize CenterPoint’s response after the storm.
CenterPoint Executive Vice President Jason M. Ryan speaks during a Public Utilities Commission meeting on July 11, 2024. Leaders of various energy companies spoke to the committee about the status of their companies in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl.In the days that followed the storm, officials and residents alike turned their eyes to the Houston area’s electric utility, CenterPoint Energy.
After Winter Storm Uri in 2021, when nearly statewide power outages persisted for days the entire electricity grid nearly collapsed, lawmakers decided Texas needed more power to meet demand. They focused their efforts on securing power generation, or fuel that is then turned into electricity, through weatherizing existing facilities and allocating $5 billion to incentivize companies to build more gas-fueled power generators in the state.
The PUC could punish CenterPoint with a fine for its handling of Hurricane Beryl’s outages. But when disasters strike, Ed Hirs, an energy expert at the University of Houston, said regulators typically skip the fine and rely on the expectation that “the cost of the cleanup is going to be more than enough penalty.”
To make their case for a rate increase, CenterPoint officials said they now served 300,000 more customers compared to when the company last requested to change its rates in 2019. They expected both population and industrial growth to continue with a shift toward electrification and potential On July 17, after public outrage over Beryl’s mass power outages, CenterPoint requested more time to keep working through the rate case discussions with the other parties involved. Entities such as the Houston Coalition of Cities, Texas Industrial Energy Consumers and Texas Consumer Association were already weighing in on the proposed rate hike. An administrative judge considering the proposed increase requested that parties file status reports by August 2 and every two weeks after.
Texas Politics Texas Policy Texas Government Economy Energy Politics State Government Public Utilities Texas Public Utility Commission Dan Patrick Greg Abbott
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