CenterPoint Energy Winter Storm Preparedness and Response Update

Winter Storm Preparedness and Operations

• ⚡ CenterPoint Energy is providing daily operational updates in anticipation of approaching winter weather, with a focus on serving customers and communities.
• ⚠️ Safety is paramount: a 35-foot distance from downed wires and reporting gas leaks are critical, alongside heeding official advice to avoid travel.
• 👥 Over 4,000 personnel (3,300 electric, 700 gas) are deployed across CenterPoint's service territory, extending from the Rio Grande Valley to East Texas.

Meteorological Outlook and Ice Accumulation

• ❄️ Meteorologists are monitoring the storm, noting a trend towards less severe ice accumulation, with a worst-case scenario of a tenth to a quarter inch of ice north and west of Houston.
• 🌡️ Temperatures are expected to drop into the 20s and potentially teens by Monday morning, requiring preparation for cold conditions.
• 🛣️ Officials urge caution on roads, as freezing temperatures can cause rapid icing, especially on bridges and overpasses, making travel hazardous.

Natural Gas System Readiness

• 💨 Over 700 frontline natural gas employees and contractors are ensuring safe and reliable delivery.
• 🛠️ More than 193 above-ground regulator stations, exposed to weather, have been inspected and prepared.
• ⛽ An additional 13 CNG trailers have been stationed to provide supplementary supply in emergency situations for over 1.2 million Texas natural gas customers.

Electric Operations and Grid Resilience

• 💡 The emergency operations center has been activated, bringing in over 3,300 pre-staged resources for system response.
• 🌳 Crews are inspecting critical infrastructure like substations and performing enhanced vegetation management, including trimming trees near power lines.
• 📈 Since 2024, CenterPoint has invested in hardening its grid, installing larger poles, over 500 automation devices to isolate faults, and trimming 8,000 miles of vegetation, resulting in a reduction of 100 million outage minutes over the past year.

Customer Communication and Support

• 📧 Over 1.8 million customer messages have been sent via email, text, and phone, with direct contact made to over 2,000 critical care customers.
• 📞 Contact center staff has been doubled, ensuring wait times of less than two minutes.
• 📱 Customers are strongly encouraged to sign up for Power Alert Services for outage updates and to use the outage tracker on the website, which includes a feature to report hazardous conditions with photo uploads.

Storm Impact and Resource Coordination

• 📉 While ice accumulation north of Houston poses a risk to transmission lines, Houston's grid receives power from multiple sources, mitigating single-point failure risks.
• 🌲 Despite extensive vegetation management, concerns remain about tree limbs falling on power lines due to potential ice accumulation and drought stress.
• 🤝 CenterPoint is coordinating with mutual assistance groups across the country, ready to share resources and personnel as needed, emphasizing a team approach to restoration efforts.