CenterPoint Energy has announced its Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative, which includes a series of immediate actions to improve resiliency and reduce the risk of outages from the next major storm or hurricane.
The initiative revealed direct feedback from Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott. It includes an accelerated timeline to execute specific actions to strengthen electric infrastructure across Houston, more than 40 critical actions in total to strengthen the electric grid and improve the company's customer communications and emergency coordination before the next hurricane.
More than 2,500 CenterPoint frontline workers and contractors will take actions to strengthen the grid and reduce the risk of outages before the next major storm.
These actions include:
· Installing stronger and more storm-resilient poles: CenterPoint will be replacing approximately 1,000 wooden poles by August 31 with stronger fiberglass poles to withstand winds up to 132 MPH.
· Trimming or removing vegetation from our lines: CenterPoint has doubled its vegetation management workforce in order to remove higher-risk vegetation near power lines by August 31.
· Installing automated devices: CenterPoint will install approximately 300 automated devices, known as trip savers. These devices mean that fewer customers experience outages, and quicker restoration times for those who do. The devices automatically re-energize the line in certain outages, to help keep the power on for customers.
The accelerated timeline for resiliency-focused actions, representing the first phase of its Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative, will be executed throughout August, and will include work across Houston community. CenterPoint has completed 15 of the actions and will be providing ongoing updates on its progress.
