The leaders of CenterPoint Energy Inc. have outlined the next phase of their investments in Houston electricity infrastructure in response to this summer’s Hurricane Beryl.
President and CEO Jason Wells and his team last month said they were willing to forego $110 million in profits and planned to double CenterPoint’s resiliency investments in the Houston area from 2026 to 2028 after Beryl hammered the city in July. CenterPoint was the target of much public criticism for its initial response to the storm—which likely inflicted more than $1.2 billion in damages to the company’s assets—and Wells pledged an intensive resiliency plan following initial cleanup work.
That plan, which CenterPoint leaders are planning to conclude by June 1, will include:
- The installation or replacement of 25,000 poles that meet extreme wind standards
- The trimming or removal of higher-risk vegetation across 4,000 miles of power lines
- The installation of 4,500 trip savers to isolate power outages and restore energy
- The installation of 350 switching devices, also to limit the impact of outages
- The undergrounding of more than 400 miles of lines
CenterPoint also will launch a year-round communications campaign focused on public emergency preparedness and safety and seek to build up partnerships with Houston-area agencies and others involved in the company’s emergency response work. The goal is clear, Wells said in a statement: To build “the most resilient coastal grid in the country.”
"We are proud of the immediate resiliency improvements we delivered” this summer, Wells said. “These actions were only the beginning. We have set ambitious goals to achieve even further enhancements to our resiliency before the 2025 hurricane season. We are committed to developing the self-healing grid of the future that our customers expect and deserve.”
Beyond next spring, CenterPoint plans to put $5 billion to work from 2026 to 2028, which is double the dollars it had projected prior to Beryl. Wells and his team plan to detail those investments in a regulatory filing early next year.
Shares of CenterPoint (Ticker: CNP) were up nearly 1% to $29.63 in midday trading Oct. 1, the day after executives outlined their near-term investment plans. The stock has just about made up the ground it lost in the wake of Beryl and the subsequent criticism of its handling of the storm’s impact. CenterPoint’s market capitalization stands at about $19.3 billion.
