CenterPoint Energy has submitted its enhanced $5.75 billion Systemwide Resiliency Plan (SRP), which is expected to reduce the impact of storm-related outages by over 1.3 billion minutes for its 2.8 million customers across Greater Houston by 2029.
CenterPoint's 2026-2028 SRP is built on the progress made during the first two phases of the company's Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI), and is designed to help address the impacts of extreme weather threats, including more powerful storms, hurricanes, wind events like derechos, flooding, extreme temperatures, tornadoes, wildfires and winter storms.
A rate case for Houston Electric occurs approximately once every four years and is part of an open and transparent regulatory process in which rates are set by the PUCT.
The actions outlined in CenterPoint's SRP are designed to benefit customers across the entire service area, with a focus on customers in higher-risk areas. When complete, this suite of resiliency actions, combined with CenterPoint's normal operations, will achieve the following:
- Automation Devices: 100% of lines serving the most customers will include automation devices capable of self-healing to reduce the impact of outages;
- Secure Substations: 99% of substations will be raised above the 500-year flood plain;
- Undergrounding: More than 50% of CenterPoint's system will be undergrounded to improve resiliency;
- Stronger Distribution Poles: 130,000 stronger, more storm-resilient poles (rated to 110 mph and 132 mph) will be either installed new, or replaced or braced to withstand stronger storms;
- Vegetation Management: CenterPoint will deploy an industry-leading, three-year vegetation management cycle for transmission and distribution lines, with 100% of power lines cleared of hazardous vegetation every three years;
- Stronger Transmission Towers: 2,200+ transmission structures will be rebuilt or upgraded to be able to better withstand extreme weather while improving overall reliability; and
- Modernized Cables: 34,500 spans of underground cables will be modernized to reduce the frequency and impact of outages.
According to analysis from Guidehouse, a third-party expert, the improvements, along with other planned actions and measures announced as part of CenterPoint's 2024-2029 rate case, are expected to strengthen overall resiliency and reliability of the Greater Houston-area electric system by at least 30% over a three-year period. These systemwide improvements will continue to provide important benefits by improving long-term reliability, and will help reduce potential weather-related outages for customers.
The Systemwide Resiliency Plan will help reduce hundreds of millions of outage minutes per year caused by extreme weather. The combined actions outlined in the SRP will help avoid outages for more than 500,000 customers in the event of another Hurricane Beryl-like storm, while also helping to improve restoration and response times during such events. The SRP is also expected to save customers a projected cost of approximately $50 million in storm-related costs per year.
Since launching GHRI in 2024, CenterPoint has:
- Installed more than 10,600 more storm-resilient poles designed to withstand extreme winds;
- Cleared more than 3,400 miles of hazardous vegetation near power lines;
- Installed more than 370 self-healing automation devices; and
- Undergrounded approximately 200 miles of power lines.
Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) revealed that the Greater Houston faces the highest weather and climate hazard risk of any region in the country. Harris County has more FEMA-designated disaster resilience zones (14) as compared to any other county in the United States.
The resiliency actions outlined by the SRP will also help meet the energy needs of the growing population across CenterPoint's Greater Houston service area. The number of customers is expected to continue growing by 2 percent annually for the foreseeable future, the equivalent of adding a city the size of Waco, Texas, every year. CenterPoint's SRP will help address the increasing risk of extreme weather in Greater Houston.
