CenterPoint Energy has completed Phase One of the Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI), which includes 42 critical initial actions and commitments made to state leaders and customers as a consequence of Hurricane Beryl to strengthen the electric system and improve its storm response, before schedule.
CenterPoint plans to deliver Phase Two of the initiative, including an additional suite of new hardening actions to help strengthen system resiliency, improve customer and public communications and develop emergency response and community partnerships.
CenterPoint completed 350 miles (equivalent to driving from Houston to Brownsville) of newly hardened power lines across the Greater Houston area and all of its immediate post-Beryl commitments to improve resiliency amongst its customers.
The initial phase included:
- Trimming or removing higher-risk vegetation from more than 2,000 power line miles
- Installing more than 1,100 stronger, more storm-resilient poles
- Installing more than 300 automated devices to reduce sustained outages
- Launching its cloud-based outage tracker
- Improving its Power Alert Service to provide better customer information
- Hosting listening sessions across the service area, with feedback being used to inform the company's storm response plans
Phase Two of GHRI will provide a self-healing system, reduce the length and frequency of outages and are expected to lead to more than 125 million fewer outage minutes annually for customers in the Greater Houston area. The work will be completed before the 2025 hurricane season, or June 1, 2025, and will include:
- Installing new or replacing 25,000 poles meeting extreme wind standards
- Trimming or removing higher-risk vegetation across 4,000 miles of power lines
- Installing 4,500 automation devices, known as trip savers, and 350 Intelligent Grid Switching Devices to build a self-healing system that utilizes automation to respond to outages faster
- Undergrounding more than 400 miles of power lines
- Launching a year-round public emergency preparedness and safety communications campaign
- Strengthening its local partnerships with agencies and partners critical to its emergency response efforts
