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“I take personal accountability for the areas where we fell short of our customers’ expectations,” CenterPoint Energy Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jason Wells told Texas utility regulators Thursday. “I want to apologize to our customers for the frustration we caused. We will do better.”
CenterPoint will trim more trees near power lines, improve its customer communications and hire a new executive to coordinate emergency response efforts with local agencies, Wells said during a meeting of the Public Utility Commission of Texas.
The hurricane, which cut power to more than 2 million East Texas homes and businesses this month, followed May blackouts triggered by wind storms and fed growing public frustration with CenterPoint. Governor Greg Abbott told Wells in a letter the company had “lost the faith and trust of Texans” and demanded it improve preparations for severe weather or face penalties. Texas lawmakers have scheduled legislative hearings next week on the hurricane response.
“I think it is great that you all came in with a bunch of information as far as what you are going to do next,” Commissioner Lori Cobos told Wells at Thursday’s hearing. “As far as what I heard, it seemed like things you should have been doing.”
Wells said the company would conduct its own investigation into the storm response and bring in third-party experts to consult on emergency preparedness and communications. He vowed to have a new cloud-based outage map launched by August 1 after its earlier version failed ahead of the hurricane. The utility has nearly doubled its vegetation management workforce to focus on higher-risk areas through the end of the year, he said.
Before Beryl struck, CenterPoint had asked regulators to approve $2.2 billion in grid resiliency investments. The commission indicated that the utility will need to amend its request in light of the hurricane.
“I commit that, starting immediately, we will improve our communications with our customers and take specific actions to build the most resilient coastal grid in the country,” Wells said.
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