In brief: Today’s post offers some thoughts about the need for a reckoning with power distribution in the greater Houston area, and greater resiliency given the conditions we regularly experience. In terms of a forecast, we will see additional thunderstorm chances today and Saturday before a hotter and calmer pattern begins Sunday.
Is this CenterPoint’s ERCOT moment?
Three and a half years ago nearly everyone in Texas had a bogeyman for the power issues that bedeviled the state during the Valentine’s Freeze of 2021. More than 4.5 million homes and businesses were left without power, and at least 250 people were killed directly or indirectly by the freeze. Property damages in the state approached $200 billion when “rolling” blackouts never actually rolled. It was a disaster—both natural and manmade.
The underlying issue was power generation, in particular the failure of power plants under extremely cold conditions, and an insufficient supply of natural gas for power plants. The reasons for this lack of preparation are complex, and partly political. The bottom line is that the organization tasked with supplying the vast majority of the state’s electricity and managing the grid, ERCOT, received the majority of the blame. This led to a reckoning for ERCOT and, at least theoretically, reforms that will prevent future issues. So far, so good.
The failure of Houston’s power grid during the derecho in May and, most recently Beryl, is a distribution issue rather than a generation issue. There was plenty of power available, it just could not be delivered to residents. There are three electricity distributors in the Houston region: CenterPoint, Texas-New Mexico, and Entergy. However by far the largest distributor is CenterPoint, which has drawn the lion’s share of angst and anger since the outages began early on Monday morning. Let’s face it, being without electricity, especially in the middle of July in Houston, is absolutely miserable.
We have been pretty clear here at Space City Weather that the region should not have experienced such widespread outages. Beryl knocked out electricity to more customers than Hurricane Ike did in 2008. At Beryl’s peak, 85 percent of CenterPoint customers lost electricity. This matters because Ike was much larger and more powerful than Beryl, and brought hurricane-force sustained winds across large chunks of the Houston metro area. I’m not saying Beryl wasn’t a nasty storm, but its winds were quantitatively, and significantly, less than those of Ike.
I am far from an expert on the distribution infrastructure that delivers power into homes. It is complex, and I salute the linemen working long hours to restore service. However, Houston’s electricity distribution system is not working. It is failing us. Many residents have now experienced two prolonged outages in three months. I realize that CenterPoint can no more control the weather than I can. But after Hurricane Ike our system should have been hardened for future similar (and lesser events, like Beryl). I realize there are no easy solutions, but there are things we should be studying and the implementing, such as concrete poles, underground lines, microgrids, and other ideas.
Whatever company officials and politicians say in the coming days, the harsh reality is that our transmission system failed the Beryl test. Badly. And if we do nothing it will happen again and again.
Just as ERCOT faced a reckoning after the great freeze, our distributors need a reckoning after Beryl. The status quo, and political leaders who enable it going forward, are unacceptable. What we have seen this week is unsustainable for a city that bills itself as the energy capital of the world.
Friday and Saturday
Parts of the Houston area saw rain showers on Thursday, and some of these developed into fairly strong thunderstorms. A few locations just west of downtown picked up 1 to 1.5 inches of rainfall. This overall pattern of plenty of moisture in the atmosphere and an unstable boundary will persist today and Saturday. Therefore we are likely to see a similar pattern for the next two days, with showers developing near the coast later this morning and migrating inland this afternoon. Unfortunately, a few areas within these stronger storms will see lighting and briefly strong winds.
The upside to this pattern is partly to mostly cloudy skies, with cooler temperatures. Highs both days will be around 90 degrees, with light winds from the southeast. Overnight lows will generally drop into the upper 70s.
Sunday
By the second half of the weekend, high pressure should expand into Southeast Texas, setting the stage for a warmer pattern. We can expect mostly sunny skies and high temperatures in the mid-90s. Rain chances will be low, perhaps 20 percent, but not non-existent.
Next week
Hot, full-on summer weather arrives next week and our region will need electricity fully restored to cope. We are looking at highs generally in the mid- to upper-90s for most of the area, with mostly sunny skies. The first half of the week should be rain free, although chances for some scattered showers arrive during the second half of the week. Rain chances may improve further by next weekend as some sort of dying front approaches the region. We shall see.
To the extent possible, have a great weekend everyone. After a long period of activity, this site will go quiet on Saturday and Sunday, and then following our normal schedule of daily posting next week.
THANK YOU!! We need many more voices talking about and pushing for better in regard to the power delivery. I saw on Twitter that power is being restored faster, but communication is lacking and that’s what is frustrating me the most since I don’t currently have power.
I agree! I wonder if those of us in the 2 week outage period (projected by zipcode) have the beginning of a class action suit against Centerpoint specifically.
This may be what it takes to move the political mountain.
How could there possibly be grounds for a class action suit? Centerpoint doesn’t control the weather. Nor do they have unlimited funds to harden the infrastructure – we as the ratepayers would need to pay for it, and the cost of doing things like burying power lines is most likely something we won’t want to swallow.
Their compensation should be tied to performance. The top 4 make about 16 million a year. Use some of that to bury underground where possible.
A weekend off is well deserved for you, Matt and your entire staff. I hope you enjoy your time off! Thank you for your constant presence and updates.
The majority of Houston was on the “clean” side of Ike. Not so with Beryl.
I spread this article out on my personal SM channels. Enjoy some R&R over the weekend. Thank you and Matt so MUCH for everything you both do for our City.
Clean or dirty side irrelevant, this debacle was man made due to lack of foresight and funding. I will take my experience to the polls .
I can never even get ahold of my congressman, Brian Babin. The first time I reached dout to him he didn’t respond but he put me on his mailing list. He’s on the House Committee for Transportation and Infrastructure but it took him days to acknowledge what happened in his district and only after he got called out. The day of the hurricane he was posting about crime in Chicago and trying to flame culture war issues. He deleted that post. Can we get the infamously absent Congressman to do any real work? He needs to go.
That’s a shame. Sam Harless was out and about and posting multiple times per day on Facebook. He has joined Tom Ramsey, Precinct 3, in demanding answers from Centerpoint. He made many calls to Centerpoint this week asking for information for specific neighborhoods.
I’m in Randy Weber’s district, and that man is more concerned with waging a culture war against imaginary Newsmax-fueled boogeymen than he is in actually serving his constituents. I’ve contacted his office again, but I fully expect that in a few weeks I’ll get a letter back from them explaining how a functioning power grid is socialism and I should be more concerned with MS-13 gangsters trying to smuggle the plans for Diebold voting machines across the border to Venezuela or whatever insane alt-right alt-fact lunacy he’s obsessed with this week.
Yeah, well I have Troy Nehls as my congressman, and he’s just the same. Everything is about illegal immigrants and re-electing Trump. He never seems to say anything about actually helping the people in his district.
The people who vote for Nehls are the kind of people that would jump off a cliff if you told them it would “own the libs”. They don’t want help, they want others to hurt. It’s super easy to be a Republican politician because you don’t actually have to do anything except drum up hateful rhetoric and accuse the other side of doing everything that your side is actually doing.
These people don’t actually want to govern or care about the people that live in their districts. I am also in Troy Nehls district and would love to vote him out, but have you seen how gerrymandered to hell our Congressional districts are?
Also how has population and the number of homes changed between Ike and Beryl. Not quite apples to apples.
On a percentage basis it’s a fair comparison.
This is the first world country we are living in? The energy capital of the world?
And all we do is start figuring out who to blame? Ohh, let pass few days and this will all be over soon for CenterPointless, the focus will be shifted and they’ll be where they are today…smh!
Well said and I completely agree with you. By the same token, CenterPoint Energy’s CEO Jason Wells recently touted how quickly Centerpoint restored 1.1 million within 48 hours. Specifically, he said “Restoring 1.1 million customers within effectively 48 hours of the storm’s passing is faster than what many of our peers have seen in the past 10 named storms.” I have seen this talking point pushed elsewhere. There are 7.1 million people that live in the greater Houston area and Centerpoint services the vast majority of them. Restoring 1.1 million customers is a drop in the bucket for the fourth largest city in the U.S. From my perspective, Centerpoint has demonstrated that they are not up to the task in supporting our City. There needs to be significant change and our City and broader-community must demand more.
1.1 million customers means that many individual households and business accounts. It’s not 1.1 million people.
Consider though, that a “customer” is actually many families as well. We have 4 in our family, but we are one “customer”. So, many people are being affected (and individual households are people too!). I will concede that businesses are not people (no matter Citizen United), but we do want the gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. to be functioning as well.
My point was that 1.1 million customers is more than 1.1 million people, probably something 2.5 million people with power restored. It’s not a “drop in the bucket” as Joe stated.
That’s such a misleading and horrible spin by Centerpointless – the twisted depravity of that is shocking. There is NO excuse for them. Absolutely NONE.
Jason Wells made 7 million for his work in 2023. What work? What planning and improvement of an aging system?
This sums it up – https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/centerpoint-texas-hurricane-power-outage-19565095.php
Maybe we need to all withhold a month or two of payments on our electricity, thst might get their attention
You don’t pay centerpoint for your electricity…. You would be withholding payment from your retail provider that would just turn your power off.
This is so frustrating that they never upgraded the power grids and infrastructure, what can we do to influence the powers that be to do this? In a city this big we should be the model not the example of what not to do.
Answer – pick one of these reality-based options:
(1) pester your elected officials, then vote.
(2) Save up a hurricane disaster fund and then replenish frequently as you use it
(3) Save up a “GTFO” fund and then use it
Sad to say but the political will is limp to impose a cost on a shareholder-based entity like Centerpoint. If they didn’t crack the whip on CP after Ike (2008 – which was 16 years ago), they won’t do it after the backlash now. Even on a federal level, the Ike Dike has barely started on the drawing board.
If you need an example, look at the “reforms” that ERCOT has gotten done in the 3.5 years after the Valentine’s Day Freeze. Glacial pace to make a pun.
They are motivated only by money. People are nothing to them.
When the refineries are without power, that’s when CP will start changes. Abbott will chew on them about that.
Refineries and chemical plants generate their own power.
Their lines run from CP. They are also affected.
I choose door (3), Alex.
While expensive, burying power lines do more than protect the grid. Buried lines allow for trees to beautifully grow, and reduce unsightly power lines. This should be mandated but Houston goverment.
Falling trees uprooted underground lines too. Not a perfect solution, but better.
I am not sure I understand this statement. Underground power lines are enclosed within a concrete vault several feet below grade. You will not ever have underground power lines exposed without the significant work required to expose them.
The less costly and more timely solution would be clearing trees from power lines. That’s a choice few property owners seem to be willing to make. Transferring above ground power lines to below would cost about a million per mile. I doubt CP will be using their billions in guaranteed profits to make that happen. At least not while Abbott and the PUC are overseeing things.
I worked for Northwestern Bell as a lineman in the early 70s.We buried telephone cable in the summer.Most of tbe city had underground elec gas and telephone cable. Understand its how far above sea level Houston is but i bet they would never do it because of the expense.
Keep in mind that the expense you’re referring to will simply be passed along to customers in a substantial increase to delivery charges in our electricity bills. It’s very much a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” sort of situation.
TNMP has done a good job at restoration within their service area. I’m on the coast and had power back by 2pm Monday. I will note, however, that a long line of wooden distribution poles were recently replaced with concrete ones within the past 2 months. I can only imagine that hardening has helped. Centerpoint should take some lessons from TNMP.
One problem is that people then complain about the bulky and unsightly poles, particularly when they are in more congested areas (e.g. some recently installed in the Montrose area in Houston). We have to be willing to make some trade offs – I would rather put up with the poles and have the power, myself.
I think it depends in the area. Currently in Brazoria and without power since we lost it on Monday at 4am.
The TNMP map has shown my area as under investigation since yesterday but I have not seen any trucks in my neighborhood at all. Hopefully it comes back soon but no one has handled this well.
Thank you so much for this thoughtfully written and accurate post. Have been completely frustrated (obviously) with no power but cell phone coverage has been abysmal so therefore difficult to know what is going on. Received email our power will be on by end of today and I am really hoping that is true, but holding my breath. I am very nervous for what we might face in Aug/Sep if this was a cat 1…. heaven help us if anything larger comes through.
Very well stated. Sadly, I am certain that when this is over (will it ever be?) there will be a root cause analysis, plus/delta listings, Excel spreadsheets, Power Point presentations and everyone will go away with some sort of path forward. And then after all that…nothing will change.
After Ike, all talk was about the Ike dike. A $30billion project that wouldn’t be a long term solution and would create more problems.
Better to spend $30billion hardening electricity infrastructure. It would support more residents per dollar spent.
Stop the Ike dike. Start the Beryl Resilience Project
I agree that Beryl vs Ike Dike would serve more locally, but the Port of Houston serves more than just Houston.
We need both.
Grid hardening for Locals
Ike Dike for protecting the Port on national level.
Thank you for this article. I’ve also been constantly thinking about how we call ourselves the energy capital of the world when all these companies do is cut corners. However, I just left O&G recently because of not only the climate cost, but I felt like the extreme cutting corners just to make a huge profit across all the companies I’ve worked and contracted for over many years is grotesque. I am not surprised it trickled down from collection to generation to distribution. The rot for chasing profit for private equity and shareholders at the expense of working people continues to grow.
Well said
I wrote, rewrote, and ultimately deleted a comment yesterday that started with the sentence, “Things could be better than this.” In the “energy capital of the world,” in 2024, with $23 billion in the “rainy day fund” and the number of very smart Texans who are good at solving problems, things ought to be better than this. Cronyism literally kills Texans during each one of these events.
More trees came down this time, taking power lines with them. Trees that didn’t come down with Ike. The trees have been weakened with the extreme weather, cold and hot, of the past few years.
While there may be some truth to this, this seems to be CenterPoint’s main defense–that unusual weather the past 3 years primed conditions for the infrastructure to fail with Beryl. Meanwhile, CenterPoint has been doing what exactly to mitigate these challenges over the past 3 years? Other than making billions in profits? “We watched a problem unfold but did nothing about it.” is a terrible excuse. Put another way, “It’s not our fault,” said the people tasked with protecting the integrity of our infrastructure.
This is not a new problem that is complex and costly. It’s just trees and wind. Cut down every tree that even has a leaf within the utility easement. Houstonians also need to take responsibility for maintaining the foliage on their property around the utilities.
My power (and internet) got taken out by a limb off my neighbors tree. The tree was healthy (verified by an arborist when trees on my property were trimmed in March) and had no branches within the utility easement. The offending limb was actually on the opposite side of the tree trunk from the powerlines. It took out the drop to my house and did not impact the main (so I’m the only one who lost power).
You mean the trees that soak up the CO2 and provide shade to keep the heat down, resulting in a lower electric bill? No thanks on cutting them down.
Exactly, Houstonians just want to complain and don’t want a solution since it will either involve a massive jump in delivery charges That will still result in power outages when a hurricane hits , Significant tree trimming and removal, or people taking responsibility for themselves and actually preparing. We live in one of the largest cities in the United States that is right on the gulf coast, This is nothing new.
I miss the days where HL&P controlled everything as a regulated municipal electric company. Rates and their yearly profit was negotiated and the idea that this was a company for making investors and executives rich wasn’t even a thought. The siren song of deregulation has brought us this mess. Just the idea of dozens of electric providers who do nothing more than buy power and flip switches to customer locations is a joke. Some things like electricity shouldn’t be left to for profit entities.
I’m not sure I understand how deregulating the marketing and billing of electricity factored in here. Centerpoint (which used to be HL&P) remains as the sole provider of electricity distribution in its service area. The power outages we’ve experience have nothing to do with the power generation, marketing or billing aspects of electricity service, and have everything to do with distribution.
I recommend “California Burning” by Katherine Blunt for an answer to that question. The book begins with the Camp Fire in 2018 in California, and how it started when a 90-year-old hook on a rural transmission tower gave way during a windstorm and dropped its line into dry brush. Within a week, 85 people were dead and four towns were largely destroyed by the resulting fire.
The author spends very little time on the fire itself. The book’s argument is that when these regulated utilities (there, Pacific Gas and Electric) become private, for-profit companies, things like maintenance, repairs, and improvements (and forget about R&D) become “cost centers” whose budgets are deliberately minimized. As years go by and the distribution/transmission equipment gets older and ever more problematic, the company simply can’t keep up, even when they try. Then when the neglected equipment has to function through even a minor natural disaster, like a windstorm in a drought, or a Cat 1 hurricane, it fails.
PG&E was always a private, for-profit company. Yes, it reorganized into a regulated utility and an regulated power merchant, but it was never a government-owned utility. The regulated utility that is reponsible for maintaining the distribution system was found negligent in the fires you’re referring to. But as a utility, its budget, including capital expenditures and operating maintenance funds, has to be approved by the regulators. Maybe I need to read the book you’re referring to, but that explanation doesn’t add up.
Sorry to tell you, but the distribution business (CenterPoint) is regulated in exactly the same fashion as the “old” HL&P was during the days of a vertically integrated, regulated utility structure in ERCOT. HL&P was not a municipally owned, not for profit entity.
I can understand all the frustration of those without power. I lost power for over a week with Ike; did not lose it at all this time around, so I consider myself lucky. People should understand that we are simply facing the cost of living in a thriving, heavily populated area oil the Gulf Coast. And it is unrealistic to expect that the distribution grid can be rebuilt in a fashion to eliminate exposure to high winds.
This is the point I’ve been making. To expect a grid that can withstand a direct hit on the dirty side of even a Cat 1 hurricane without significant power outages is pretty unrealistic, given the exorbitant cost of doing things like burying lines etc. It’s unfortunate, but yes it’s a price we have for living here.
The comparison between Ike and Beryl and rating CenterPoint’s performance is misleading. Instead, shouldn’t we be comparing CenterPoint to Florida Power & Light, Entergy in LA and other areas subject to frequent hurricanes? FP&L uses solid IT systems to pre-position power polls before the hurricane hits. Did we see any of that planning by CP?
Thanks Enron, Ken Lay, George W Bush, and one party state rule!
Hope you and Matt can enjoy some time off even if the power isn’t back yet. Agree with your sentiments about the grid in Houston 100%! I think the outrage would be less if everyone was told what CenterPoint had done and is doing to address this issue but instead we get little to know information and that leads us to conclude there isn’t action being taken. In the absence of information people will draw their own conclusions and in this case CenterPoint is making themselves a target for the blame and accusations thru their lack of communication.
Yes, our infrastructure is a mess. Not just the grid, but our roads, bridges, water, and sewer. The main reason it is in such a mess is lack of willingness to pay for a solid infrastructure. That’s on the part of politicians and voters. We want cheap electricity (just note all the plans offered that supposedly give you “free electricity” even though there is no such thing), free water, and no toll roads. Well, we now have what we deserve. I guess that 72″ 4K TV in the home theater room and a Lexus in the driveway are more important than solid , reliable infrastructure, which is a common good you use every day.
Business isn’t off the hook either. When I walk through the plant I work in, what have I noticed over the years? A lack of willingness to spend on infrastructure. Defer it until next year because it will make this year look bad and I might not get promoted. Defer it until I’m not in this job anymore, let my successor deal with it. Well, what usually bites us in the you know what? Our infrastructure. Fifty+ year old substation fails, major cooling tower fails structural inspection, road develops a sink hole from a 60+ year old underground water line leak, the list goes on.
What it comes down to is this – if you want reliability, be prepared to pay a lot more. Either pay more, or increasingly do without.
Rant completed.
Rant seconded.
TANSTAAFL
Your efforts are appreciated! Thank both for all you do.
How is this not another ERCOT failure, and by extension a legislative failure? Texas Republicans are making a show of the blame game while four of their fingers are pointing back on them for a whole host of issues we are facing. Full disclosure: I vote republican in most elections, but that’s about to change. Now I expect Centerpoint to approach ERCOT with the bill for all the damages, and we will see another significant jump in our energy rates.
This is not an ERCOT failure. They simply manage the grid they were given. Ad politically, it’s a failure of BOTH Rs and Ds alike.
More than anything, it’s corporate greed and profit taking for their shareholders that is causing the biggest issues. Our politics have been infiltrated by lobbyists and re-election campaign fundings. With Republicans holding the majority of the seats at the state level, a lot of it falls directly and squarely on THEIR shoulders. Sure, Democrats take a bit of blame, but let’s not act like the level of culpability here is equal.
Very,very well said Eric.
Houston deserves an electricity provider that communicates honestly and clearly, especially if they are failing otherwise. Storms create crisis. Badly run companies exacerbate the chaos.
Well said, I completely agree.
CenterPoint Energy gross profit for the quarter ending March 31, 2024 was $1.832B, a 10.3% increase year-over-year
CenterPoint Energy gross profit for the twelve months ending March 31, 2024 was $6.707B, a 7.12% increase year-over-year.
Please explain to me again why they have to wait for federal funding to upgrade our distribution network?
This company MAKES ENOUGH MONEY TO UPGRADE NETWORKS WITHOUT ADDITIONAL FUNDING OR INCREASING OUR PRICING… ITS OBVIOUS!
For those that prefer, net profit/income numbers… it doesn’t change my mind much personally.
CenterPoint Energy net income for the quarter ending March 31, 2024 was $0.350B, a 11.82% increase year-over-year.
CenterPoint Energy net income for the twelve months ending March 31, 2024 was $904M, a 12.58% increase year-over-year.
The problem is historical. Houston is the largest city in the hemisphere without a zoning ordinance. Planning? Houston don’t need no stinkin’ plan. Developers buy hundreds of acres, put in their own streets, water, drainage and sewage facilities, plat lots and sell them. As customers show up, electric distribution follows, often one customer at a time. We then wind up with layers of spider webs of primary and low voltage transmission lines going to and from randomly placed substations. Distribution is on pine poles which are replaced when broken by drunks or storms. As Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up some place else.”
I’d like a root cause analysis of the power outages we’ve been experiencing. How many of them are because of trees falling into power lines vs. other components of the infrastucture failing?
If it’s mostly power line issues, it’s fine to say we should bury all power lines. But then the question comes: are we willing to pay for that? This is an interesting article on this topic: https://www.khou.com/article/news/news-explainers/the-why/houston-power-lines-buried-why-not/285-fc0cf7a6-50e5-497f-96c9-065c0e01c33b
So if we do the math, burying 28,000 miles of distribution lines at $2.5 million per mile comes out to $70 billion. Assuming 3 million Centerpoint customers, that equates to $23,000 per customer. This seems like pure fantasy to me.
It’s always more expensive to play catch-up than to stay ahead of the game.
Agreed, Blackhawks Fan.
Thank you for speaking up, speaking out, about Center*Pointless.
(I should trademark that)
It’s way beyond any reasonable amount of time for them to do their job which is not ony delivering, but also managing for power distribution.
That includes managing the trees that they don’t trim as needed. I’m staring at at least 5 trees in just a 100ft fence line which are ripe to cause issues as the limbs are way too close to the lines.
I called when I moved to my home a few yrs back and they wouldn’t cut it. Not my tree but since it came in my yard and even touched lunes going to my house i paid 700 to cut what I could.i can’t afford that anymore can hardly afford groceries. It was bad and again they wouldn’t cut it and nowbi am still out of power. If cp or city would take care of dang trees a lot could be fixed. I’m at an appt now and receptionist here they can’t get power cuz neighbors tree fell and they won’t cut it and get it off lines without talking to him and they can’t reach him. That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard
Excellent analysis. Heads of these companies need to roll. Their failure to adequately prepare is nothing short of criminal.
We’re now at a stage of boiling water. How do you do that without power?
This is unnecessarily escalating to a life threatening event. Thank you Centerpoint.
P.S. Greatly appreciate your coverage.
A pity there are no criminal penalties for CEOs, etc. who prioritize profit so much that people are injured.
I think as the city’s population grows the power infrastructure has not. That is why we are seeing power lose for longer periods. Thank you for all you do for H town 😁
Texas is a one party state. I live here and I’m baffled that the average Texan doesn’t see that this is a consequence of this. Texas is bad governance writ large and the majority of the state laps it up. You might not yourself but you know people that do and you don’t talk about it with them.
First thing on our list when we moved here was a generator and I’m very happy about that!
Houston is a one party city.
It hasn’t had a republican mayor since 1982.
You’re gonna be shocked to find out what laws the state is passing to strip the local governments of power.
Thank you for acknowledging this. Its ridiculous. I still have no power. I can understand it taking time but the worst part is I have been told it would be fixed Monday which didn’t make sense but ok, Tuesday, Wednesday I was told it was fixed but nope nest outage. The stupid chart is worthless and they promised time frames yesterday my time from isn’t there. Just give me a semi accurate time frame that’s all I ask but they can’t do that. Idk if I need to travel to family where I can bring my pets and take off work which I can’t afford because it is next week or if it is today and I should stay.
We don’t have power either. We had to leave to avoid further heat illness. I could tell it was creeping in. I never fled AFTER a hurricane.
I see CP put up a new ‘category’ called ‘partially energized’ and gave a green light to save face. Cowardly backtracking duplicitous actions by the higher ups.
When we go back we’ll face trash, smell, insects, rot and mold. I took every precaution I could beforehand, but this infrastructural instability was a new one I didn’t account for.
We’re very lucky we had another place to go.
I’m crossing my fingers and wishing you luck.
You both deserve some rest and time with your family. Enjoy your weekend and look forward to hearing from you on Monday. Thanks again for all the support you guys give to all of us.
When you privatize public utilities (for the benefit of the rich and their political minions), no one is really accountable. The CEO of Centerpoint makes $37 million and that money doesn’t come from spending on hardening infrastructure and properly preparing before impending storms, it comes from spending as little as possible always.
Beryl had higher sustained winds through the city, ground was already saturated so more trees fell. I heard CenterPoint wants more money to cut down trees, in my opinion, they should shore up their infrastructure with any additional funds… and bring in additional help. Human workers have to eat, sleep, it’s not on the folks handling the downed lines today. Big picture is to fix it when it’s not broken, do what we pay them to do daily.
Thanks SCW for keeping us informed. You guys rock!
Three of us adults and two dogs are just North of Conroe (Paranormal Village) and have been without power since Beryl hit. Our latest update from Entergy predicts we’ll be restored on Monday 15th. This stinks.
I’ve been reading everything I can find and have seen on multiple national and local news sites that Beryl struck the Houston area with considerably higher winds than Ike or any other recent storm. One report sited a gust recorded at IAH 15 MPH higher than the previous record set during Ike. Have any previous storms hit Houston dead-center harder than Beryl did?
At least you have a date. CP has given false dates and now it’s fri, sun or next week
Maybe something will change when the “powers-that-be” realize that their brand is being severely tarnished nationwide. I can imagine an eventual critical mass of businesses and their employees who would balk at or refuse a relocation to Texas and specifically Houston.
Our daughter was in Playa del Carmen, beachfront, when Beryl landed as a solid Cat 2. Never lost power. Flew out of Cancun the next day and did not see any signs of power outage anywhere. Maybe we should study what they do?
Forced deregulation of the local power industry has been a failure since day one. Restore the HL&P natural monopoly!
Centerpoint is still a regulated monopoly. Only the retail electric companies were deregulated, and retail power companies are not responsible to maintain the power lines and fix outages–Centerpoint is. Being a regulated monopoly, Counterpoint has to seek government approval for their charges to the retail power companies to transmit their power for them. So–IMHO, Centerpoint needs to seek State of Texas approval to raise their transmission rates to pay for hardening the grid, burying cables and doing more tree trimming.
Excellent article guys! Let me add a couple points. Hardening the grid and burying lines costs money. And we the customers will bear the cost. Personally, I’m willing to pay a higher power bill to have more reliable service, but there will be a lot of public pressure to not spend money that raises our power bills. And second, a high percentage of the outages (don’t know the number, but I believe way over 50%) are caused by trees that sway into power lines, or broken branches that fall on power lines, or whole trees that fall/break onto power lines. I love Houston’s trees and hate to see them cut back, but the tree cutting standards that Centerpoint uses (how much tree-free space is maintained between power lines and trees) needs to be significantly increased. Yes, it will mean more trees are significantly cut back or cut down. We Houstononians love our trees (me included), but we need to sacrifice a lot of trees for a more reliable power supply.
Hear, hear.
I recall Alicia hitting us dead center. I was in League City at the time and the eye past just to my west. But Beryl hit just to the west, which is even worse.
Eric,
First, fair disclosure, I live in the Entergy area of The Woodlands where local distribution lines are buried. Our outages are due to damage to high voltage lines, transformers and substations, or contractors cutting underground lines during construction projects. Also, after 2021, we had a 20 kW whole house generator professionally installed.
You are 100% correct. The technology and manufacturing already exists.
Key West sets an example for resiliency of its distribution grid. That area is in “hurricane alley,” having been grazed or struck directly numerous times the last 20-30 years. Geology and geography prevent burying lines, so they have mini-grids, which prevents widespread outages. All of their poles are concrete – wind does not knock them down.
As for the State of Texas as a whole, the overhead high voltage system from the coast to 100-150 miles inland must be hardened to withstand a Cat 5 storm. The local lines should use concrete or reinforced plastic resin poles. AND ALL USERS MUST BE WILLING TO PAY FOR IT.
Here’s one approach. The legislature and governor agree to use the “Rainy Day Fund as collateral to secure low interest bond funds. The bond proceeds are used for the capital needed to do the hardening. TX PUC then orders ALL distributors to GET IT DONE, and QUICKLY.
Rates are adjusted up (0.5 to 1.0 cents per kWh perhaps) for ALL POWER USERS, NO DISCOUNTS.
I’m certain people are e we pulling to pay a bit more for power to avoid a week or more of misery that might also be deadly.
Very well written and explained. My only issue with your comment is that, in my opinion… we’re already paying for it. That proven by the CEO pay and the companies net income this year so far.
If we’re paying enough for them to make that much money, we’re paying for them to make the improvements needed to THEIR infrastructure.
Just a little anti capitalism rant for the morning. 🙂
You do make valid points… I just feel like they should do better as a company, they clearly have the funds already.
Exactly…I’m one of these people, as are a lot of my friends, who are older, pushing 70 or more..Prolonged outages in this heat can be definitely be deadly..At multiple points during this aftermath my husband became dehydrated,(he’s diabetic)no cooling area available, while we worked to clear limbs..And yes, we did drink up on water.. So now he’s fighting a severe UTI..
We hadn’t invested in a generator because we know we like to leave..It’s easier to reserve a room out of the impact zone, without driving out of state, if we make the reservations a couple of days ahead of time…We didn’t feel concerned enough about widespread outages, to leave ahead of Beryl, until the storm was nearly right on top of us, and by that time the driving would have been hazardous to reach anywhere past the predicted impact zones..So we stayed home..
I’m with no trees around power lines. Make it a code or whatever. If you want green, go to a park or a rural area. We can’t expect to live in an urban environment and then not want to deal with the results of these natural disasters.
CenterPoint have come up with excuse after excuse why they can’t strengthen the distribution infrastructure. A couple of hilarious one I heard from a CP rep on the radio this week was that they can’t bury the lines due to destruction of “historically significant areas”. Seriously? Look at every European city! Then they mumbled something about buried cables being harder to fix. This in the energy capital of the world where O&G companies are laying millions of miles of subsea cables miles below the sea. We have the technology. The sad truth is there’s no incentive for a for-profit company with no real market competition to invest in their customers.
Yes, this doing without electricity for days is miserable..What’s worse is that a little thunderstorm can knock our newly restored power out if trees haven’t been trimmed or cut down, near the transmission lines….And Centerpoint seems very lax about doing this..It would be ridiculous if we had another widespread outage after a garden variety thunderstorm because things weren’t fixed in a lasting safe way..My husband doesn’t want to buy a generator, because we usually leave when hurricanes are coming our way..But I’m going to save up and buy one….I trust none of the leaders to have the public well-being or interest at heart..
Just an FYI if ya didn’t know Texas does an emergency preparedness tax free weekend typically in late April early May. Generators, batteries etc are on that up to a certain price point. Look it up on Texas comptroller website or Google it.
Amen! CenterPoint needs to be held accountable. Moreover their response to the outage was tone deaf and at times almost dismissive, adding insult to injury. Hopefully this event will be the tipping point and lead to real change and a measure of accountability that appears absent.
Always enjoy your posts. Could the recent droughts have something to do with all the trees down specifically Kingwood/Humble area?
Eric,
The duration of the winds might have also played a factor. Ike’s winds were predominantly out of the North until the eye passed. Beryl was from the SE. I think a comparison of how long the winds blew and at what speeds might have made a difference.
It’s the constant pounding of the winds for hours upon hours that weakens the trees and the sudden gusts that causes them to fail. Ike might have had stronger gust but I’m willing to bet Beryl’s winds were more persistent.
Well spoken!! The truth about Houston’s claim to fame: Energy Capital juxtaposed with the reality of energy distribution (an oxymoron here and now).
The data and statistics add validity to the poke: get-it-done y’all!!
Here is my speculation: it has been 16 years since Ike. I think we will find that Centerpoint has found cost savings in neglecting their brush and tree clearing operations along power line right-of-ways.
Further: now that this has been declared a disaster area, Centerpoint has now outsourced the cost of that neglect to the taxpayer.
As a last point, Centerpoint’s CEO is from PGE, and it was exactly this behavior that caused many of those wildfires a few years ago in California.
Food for thought. Maybe encourage the State to investigate?
With all of the new development, and with more people having moved to the Houston area, plus, more appliances, and things like electric cars, the demand on the power distribution system in Houston has grown since Ike.
You’ve missed the point. It shouldnot be happening! CenterpPointbin not doing their job.
You cannot have accountability without regulation. If there is no rule, no rule is broken. But there is no word that more quickly causes old, rich, white men to piss their pants than “regulation.”
Lol, ain’t that the truth..These old blowhards don’t want regulation, they want to bully society to do things their way..To protect their own pocketbooks and livelihoods of excess..Rules and laws help to ward off utter chaos..Rules give many people on the margins of society a more equal opportunity for a fighting chance at not living their lives in total misery..
I know people, who have 7-10 thousand dollars a month in their budgets to fund their own households, way of life ..If these people don’t have to pay extreme medical expenses or have other special health needs, certainly they can come up off of some of their extra cash to pay their FAIR share of taxes to make our cities safer better places to live..These are the very people who support extreme deregulation…
Our existence as we know it, seems to be disintegrating, one crumb at a time..We need to have rules and regulations to discourage entitled asshats from stepping on other people’s toes..
Lol, that’s funny.
Eric, I need to address a few of your comments.
“Beryl knocked out electricity to more customers than Hurricane Ike did in 2008”
The data support this assertion. 2.26 million customers lost power in Beryl vs the 2.15 million in Ike (https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2024/07/10/beryl-vs-ike-is-it-taking-longer-to-get-power-back-for-customers/) However, this makes sense, considering we were on the dirty side of Beryl compared to Ike. Comparatively, Bolivar and Port Arthur were on the dirty side of Ike.
“I’m not saying Beryl wasn’t a nasty storm, but its winds were quantitatively, and significantly, less than those of Ike.”
I rode out both storms in the same location (Heights). Subjectively, Beryl was far worse, as I felt the gusting was more erratic and lasted over a much longer timeframe, which, again, is expected on the dirty side. That whiplashing has a fatigue effect on materials. Can you provide data to back your claim? The Chronicle seems to disagree with you:
“Beryl brought 83 mile-per-hour gusts to Bush Intercontinental Airport, surpassing highs for Ike”
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/centerpoint-puc-beryl-ike-utilities-commissioners-19568241.php#
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-weather/article/record-breaking-wind-speed-houston-storm-18165106.php
“But after Hurricane Ike our system should have been hardened”
Are you willing to pay for it? It’s more than just a rhetorical question. I know I am, and I did. I bought a portable generator and a window unit (kept on a shelf in the garage) after Katrina/Rita. I upgraded after that first winter storm a few years back to a larger, tri-fuel (NG/propane/gasoline) portable* generator that will run one of my central ACs. I keep the older gasoline-powered generator as a backup, which came in handy as I loaned it to a neighbor to keep their essentials going.
Most don’t allocate the funds to buy a portable generator, let alone a standby. I’ve found that people’s memories are short and soon become complacent, more interested in a new car, phone, or sports stadium. On a larger scale, is the community willing to pay the extra cost of increased rates or taxes to ensure the grid is hardened? We live in a world of more grasshoppers than ants, but I hope that changes.
” I realize there are no easy solutions, but there are things we should be studying and the implementing, such as concrete poles, underground lines, microgrids, and other ideas.”
I agree — there are no easy solutions. Underground lines are capital intensive (consider the insulation needed for a 12.8kV distribution service, let alone 69kV transmission). Concrete poles are costly as well (and still might fail). Microgrids, though less efficient in certain cases, are interesting, and should receive a focus of the investigation in my opinion.
Regards
Kirk
We still haven’t even had an assessment so no restoration estimate five days in to this thing..
Separately — I know you guys live out in the burbs but Houston has a serious problem right now as street drains have not been cleared of debris. Yesterday’s rain flooded streets and intersections within Houston. Water simply couldn’t drain. I believe Allen Parkway is still a river. Any rain at all will cause street flooding until drains are fixed. Seriously consider today a stage 1 flood alert for inner loop Houston
Thank you for your comments about the dismal performance by Centerpoint. And I’m sure my son’s family in Spring Branch, currently living in smothering darkness for the second time this year agree.
I agree with your comments. We live just outside north loop 610. In March 2024, lightening struck a transformer and power was out for just eight homes for over 20 hours. Since power outages have become a recurring issue, I installed an 18kw portable generator with a 50 amp plug into my electrical panel. Since that installation, we have had to use the generator five times… the derecho in May, Beryl and three other times after low-level thunderstorms. Power loss has become such a common occurrence in my neighborhood, I no longer unplug the generator. It’s time to fortify the grid for resilience.
Same in my neighborhood
An extra one cent per KWH charge was added to our electricity distribution rate after the 2022 freeze to IMPROVE reliability. Where has it gone?
I’ve been accused in social media posts of being a “CenterPoint apologist.” I’m not, but I also feel it important to remind people that we are always warned “be prepared to be without power for at least 72 hours.” At. Least. Seeing lines of cars getting gasoline Tuesday morning? That’s a failure to plan on the part of the resident. And SCW had begun to sound the alarm over the weekend that certainly “west Houston” could face some serious problems. As I’ve said before, a Category One is still a hurricane and not some “little old storm” especially when it gives a fair part of the city a direct hit.
Yes, CP needs to harden its system. But, they have hardened the transmission portion of their system. No towers went down. Composite poles in Galveston demonstrated they could withstand what wooden poles cannot. CP, I believe, is working to get much of its system hardened over the next few years (it is a time consuming process). The PUCT also needs to hold CP’s feet to the fire with just exactly what they are doing to meet promises made in their various rate cases.
CP fell down, way down, in public communications. Their CEO did an interview in this morning’s HOU Chron and they had a spokesman on morning news. That needed to be done Tuesday or Wednesday.
It is July. We are now through the “C” storm. Climate change means these are only going to get worse.
“…a larger, tri-fuel (NG/propane/gasoline) portable* generator…”
Why didn’t I upgrade to a standalone (e.g. 22kW Generac, Cummins, etc)? Flexibility and cost were more important to me than the convenience of a standby. If the NG system drops (because the compressor stations fail or too many people are pulling from the headers with their standbys), I can switch to propane and, as a last resort, gasoline (ethanol gas is hell on small engines). I can also swap out machines if my primary fails, or hook up to an EV or hybrid. Additionally, as technology improves, I can move to an inverter generator that is large enough to run my AC (currently, these are costly) or a battery/solar solution.
Regards
Kirk
I’m disappointed that you would throw fuel on the fire while utility crews are having guns pulled on them and dealing with drive-by shooting threats, even though you admit to not being an expert. You of all people should understand the real harm that can be caused by inexpert speculation. Houston deserves a no-hype, educated, fact-based take on this just like it does for the weather. I’ve been a huge Space City Weather fan since August 2017 (and I will continue to be), but for the first time, I have to say, please DO BETTER for this city.
Eric didn’t say anything wrong or out of place, his comments are not about the linemen or ours that are giving their all to get the power on. It talks about the future of what needs to be done to not go through this again.
Time to get off the internet there Chief…
Hi. It was not our intent to “throw fuel on the fire.” The post explicitly thanks the utility crews out there restoring power. And I totally understand your comment on “inexpert speculation.” I did explicitly say we’re not experts on this. But what I do know is that the status quo is not acceptable. Thanks for your comment.
Amen, Brother Ben! I find it ironic that Center Point was quick to blame three years of environmental conditions causing “weak trees” that fell across their T&D (transmission and distribution) lines. So my question to them is this, since you have utility easements everywhere you have power lines and you were aware of this situation, why haven’t you been trimming these weak trees within your easement? Typical utility, “not our fault” mentality and response. Be interesting to look at their dividends and stock price over the same three year period….
I agree with every word! Thank you for speaking up for us.
Love what you said. Now let’s see what happens. We cannot keep going through this. Thank you for keeping us updated on the weather. You are my go to weather people!!
Thank you Eric for saying correctly our major electrical issue. We fix it just good enough to get power back on so people will forget how we got here. There is no will to make costly changes and improve the system. We keep talking about the Ike Dike, rightfully so. But we now need to use the Beryl name as marching orders to make the electrical distribution changes. I’ve been in the Clear Lake area since 1956, and know CenterPoint region was the old HL&P. But I’m wondering if the area is now too big for them and the distribution might need to be split up to maybe 3 different providers. Step one is your local state congressman with your concerns, that’s the only way anything will get done, as I’m sure not only money allocation but laws will need to be changed.
You are 100 percent spot on. Living on the gulf coast I accept that storms bring messes and inconveniences. However, if the power companies were doing their jobs the cleanup would have gone much more quickly. Linemen are superheroes but even their super powers cannot overcome the failures of management.
I completely agree with your assessment with Houston’s power distribution system, and the failings therein. Hopefully, political leaders, going forward, will feel some urgency to address the issue and implement a plan of measurable steps to produce an effective change or be held accountable for not doing so.
In most places in the US state regulators make sure that the power companies – who have been given a monopoly in their service area – are making the right investments and not overcharging. But in Texas, regulators don’t actually do any serious regulation (see: TDEQ), they’re really just there to make sure that people in favor with the state republican leadership get their money. This stuff is the result.
We left Texas for good shortly before Beryl and the crumbling infrastructure of the state was one of the reasons. My heart goes out to all of you dealing with this but honestly, we’re so glad to be out of there.
Unfortunately, we only seem to find the holes in our boat AFTER we are at sea, absolutely preventable.
You are the voice of the city, thank you Eric for your candid remarks and thoughtful insight, as well as the no-hype weather forecasts. The ONLY source I use for weather and information. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I’d like to hear Eric and Matt’s comments on the impact of the 2023 drought on the health of trees, and how the 2023 drought weakened or killed trees, resulting in more trees falling on power lines during Beryl. I know a number of large trees in my neighborhood died or were dying and had to be removed in the last 6 months.
Keep up the great work SCW! Your coverage during Beryl was extremely informative and comforting.
John
Mr. Berger you whiffed badly on this one, I’ll politely but firmly state that you need to stay in your lane and understand that your voice has weight, and you’ve chosen the wrong side of the conversation.
In one of the posts leading up to Sunday night/Monday morning either on SCW or TEW, there was a graph posted that is SUPPLIED BY CENTERPOINT showing expected outcomes for transmission lines at various wind velocities, looks to me like it was fairly accurate.
The transmission lines are built to a spec. Many of the high voltage lines are decades old and were formerly in the boonies but have now been surrounded by people and houses (and trees).
Many residential areas have trees hanging over lines. Residents get furious when utility companies maintain their rights of way and trim the trees, so no, this is NOT all on CENTERPOINT.
Being objective, look at how long it takes other areas similarly impacted to recover and you’ll likely find this is well within the norm.
Alicia took two weeks where I lived in Nassau Bay in 1983. Literally across the street from JSC. In August.
Just like you get things wrong with bad sources at NASA, you’ve gotten this wrong. Do better.
You have no business posting here.
I’ll be polite as well. Bless your heart.
Agree on every level what you said about our power distribution needing a reckoning! It’s been too long in coming!
I’m trying to comment everywhere I can – CP has ceased updating and informing us. I last received a text at 11:55 PM on Wednesday. I am sending screenshots of the outage map to my friends stuck in Houston, otherwise they would know nothing. I am in BCS with a daughter, so I was lucky to have a place to go. I live near s. Braeswood and Buffalo Spdwy. Thanks for listening.
If we rely on the “experts” to solve this problem without being called on the carpet by the general public for their failure to prepare for these weather events that everyone, and I mean everyone, knows are going to happen, nothing will be corrected. Remember that in 2021 Greg Abbot first blamed wind generation facilities in west Texas for the blackouts, knowing full well that they had absolutely nothing to do with it. Power companies in Texas (producers and distributors) are incredibly parsimonious (greedy/cheap) and have most of our politicians in their pocket. They will do nothing (spend the money it will take to fix it) unless they are forced to do so and can make their customers pick up the tab for something they should have been doing for years.
There are a shocking number of neighborhoods in east League City that weren’t even on the outage map. Days later one of my sister’s neighbors stuck it out for hours on hold with the power company who confirmed that area wasn’t showing up on their list.
I don’t know the solutions to the infrastructure, but I betcha if power companies couldn’t charge people who weren’t getting electricity (didn’t even know that was a thing!!), they’d be checking for outages themselves.
Thank you SCW crew for all you do for us. You all deserve a weekend off. Enjoy time with your families.
I’ve lived here in Houston for 30+ years and the only country I’ve lived in that had worse power was Brazil. But power outages were sort of expected at that time AND the outages never lasted very long. Houston, and Texas, should be able to do better.
Could not agree more. An added factor when comparing Ike and Beryl, however, is the rapid population growth. Percentages should be adjusted accordingly. No apologist for Centerpoint though. You were spot on.
Actually, WE are our own worst enemies. Look around at the trees and branches laying across power lines. We like to plant trees to disguise power lines on poles near our homes and then we fail to maintain those trees and keep them trimmed back away from power lines. When Centerpoint or the City comes through and trims trees away from power lines along public streets, residents howl about their trees being ‘butchered”. It is not Centerpoint’s responsibility to trim dead and weak branches from our trees and to keep branches away from power lines. I love trees and Houston has many beautiful shade-giving trees, but power lines on poles and weak or neglected trees will always be a problem. This is not something Centerpoint can control. Burying our electric lines is very expensive, makes repair more time consuming and expensive and is problematic in the “gumbo” we have in Houston. As this post noted, we have hard choices to make to maintain our infrastructure during storms, and all of those choices will be costly to residents one way or another.
Good for you. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Keep after them.
“Insufficient natural gas” is telling. All over Cuero, TX natural gas is being burned instead of used and has been for years. I imagine that happens a lot in many other places as well. Cannot see a reason for this, do you guys?
Thank you for all you do at Space City Weather!!
The 2021 freeze prompted us to purchase a full house generator ($15,000) which we knew we would need. Thank goodness we did. It ran for four days before we were lucky to get our power back. I now am afraid to see how much my natural gas bill will be this month. We pay and pay some of the wealthiest companies on the planet and they just don’t care about anything but money, to heck with their customers that they know are prisoners in their grid.
Hello Eric,
Thanks so much for getting us through another storm! And thanks for today’s post about electricity distribution. I’d like to offer you my husband Frank Thompson’s unique perspective as the owner of a tree service in NW Houston. (Interestingly, Ike was the inception of our business back in 2008!)
Here are his ideas about why such a “wind-friendly” hurricane as Beryl (compared to Ike) has caused so much tree damage and subsequent power outage:
1. 10+ year history of extreme weather conditions has weakened the region’s trees, especially the older ones: The severe droughts of many years back, Harvey’s flooding that covered trees with water for days, the extreme freezes of recent years, more floods, and most recently last summer’s extreme heat/drought conditions have all contributed to weakening the area’s trees and their root systems. Declining trees are also more susceptible to disease, destructive insects, and fungus. Ike did a lot of damage from high winds and twisters, but trees in general were stronger then than they are now.
2. Recent heavy rains of May and June have soaked the ground, and Houston’s tall trees with poor root systems and dense interior canopies became prone to tipping. That’s why we’re seeing so many huge trees down roots-and-all during Beryl. That was not as much a problem with Ike. I wonder what the devastation would have been this week had Beryl been a Cat 3? I shudder to think.
3. Fewer and fewer people are taking care of their trees because of our inflationary economy. It is expensive to: thin trees to reduce wind sail, to trim them back well away from power lines, and also to remove them entirely. People just don’t budget for trees, and when they have a need, it’s unaffordable. And as living things, tree problems always get worse with time. If our current economy continues, trees will be more and more problematic during storms, and power outages will increase. Comparing Ike and Beryl, trees were very likely better-maintained during Ike than what we are seeing now in preparation for the 2024 hurricane system.
4. So where do energy distributers fit into all of this? They need to know the facts above and increase their own tree-maintenance of power lines accordingly. They need to be MUCH more pro-active. With so many trees in decline, they need to increase their distance requirements for tree lines from power lines. And yes, underground lines would solve the tree problem.
We’re no scientists over here, and the opinions above are purely based on experience, so you can take them with a grain of salt if you like; but if we’re going to have more storms this summer, we believe people will see more of the same (and worse) when bigger winds come our way. Yes, a lot of trees are gone, but the one’s still standing have suffered the same recent history of stressors. We’re praying here that all gulf storms head for unpopulated areas with no trees!
Thanks so much for all you guys do for our region! You’re a daily part of our lives even out here in Cypress!
Many thanks,
Becky Thompson
Well stated and interesting. We just paid about $1000 having the canopies of the three live oaks in our front yard thined. Happy we did but he is so right that the cost for these services have gone through the roof (I guess better that than a tree going through the roof).
Thank you for this. You’re absolutely right. I am very fortunate to have many, many trees on an oversized lot and I budget for tree work — and expensive tree work because I want it done right, but I am extremely fortunate to be able to do so. I was also fortunate — and yes, privileged, I’ll use that word, to be able to afford to water the heck out of everything last year during the drought.
New arrivals into Houston/first-time homeowners inheriting old-growth trees likely don’t have any POV on tree maintenance and thinning out volunteer trees. Realtors enticing people into homes that have trees could help there. HAR could start adding tree maintenance costs in their breakdown estimate of annual costs, etc. I realize that’s a reach, but spitballing there.
So many folks, by the very nature of the climate here, walk from the car to the front door and shut the door and don’t really pay attention to their yards. They need to, especially where nature intersects with power distribution.
Physician, heal thyself. 72 hours from landfall, the NHC predicted landfall in Brownsville. 48 hours before landfall, it was Corpus Christi. So for those whining about Centerpoint not “staging” for the hurricane, I’m glad your forecasting was better than the NHC. As far as the Ike (I was without power for 10 days) to Beryl (I was prepared to be without power for 10 days) comparison, PLEASE! Ike was 16 YEARS AGO! The metro area has added 2 million more residents since then. What was once fields and pasture 16 years ago is now filled with houses and shopping centers. Additionally, Ike tracked to the EAST of Downtown! Sparing the west side of town from going through the “dirty” side. A more logical comparisons would be the track of Alicia in ’83 or Carla in ’61. Of course, since you did not include Alicia in your list of Top 5 Weather Disasters for Houston, I suspect you either weren’t around or too young to remember. Look at the damage from Alicia and remember that there is now almost 3 times more people in the area from when Alicia hit in ’83. As far as Carla, I’m not old enough for Carla, but I remember talking to those who were after Alicia went through. Their comments were Alicia was a cake walk compared to Carla, so… Based on the path Beryl took, we should all be grateful that Beryl did not start to strengthen when originally forecasted and come ashore as a strong Cat 2/Cat 3 storm. If a lack of power at your house is your only problem, then consider yourself blessed and remember, it’s only July… September with it’s storms is still to come.
The Beryl damage was extensive and widespread. People lost their lives. I’m grateful that thousands are getting their power restored on a daily basis. The entitlement mentality of what “we deserve” is not helpful. We will learn and improve because that’s what Texans do.
Is it though? Texas exceptionalism is a fantastic myth born out of our rugged frontier days, but it has declined to the point of maybe being extinct. We’re so amazing that we don’t need to share our electrical grid with the rest of the US like all the other lower 48 states do, and look how that’s failed us repeatedly. Our education system is sorely underfunded and censored so kids can’t learn critical thinking skills, science, and actual history. And we regularly re-elect politicians who repeatedly demonstrate they are in it only to enrich themselves and their buddies. The sad irony is that we are pushing back to the frontier days of rugged individualism. Why invest in a stable electrical grid when we can all invest in a home generator and a survival shelter filled to the brim with MREs and canned food?
We have never had hurricanes in the heat of July before..Summer seems to be hotter and hotter as the years go by..Ike happened in September..When I returned from IKE evacuation, it felt like we were in the midst of a very mild cool front for that first week or so after IKE..To me, the IKE aftermath wasn’t quite as difficult..And yes, I do remember the long gas lines, eating MREs, etc..I remember our entire town, southeast of Houston, came back online pretty quickly after IKE..
SIMPLY PUT….
You guys are total all stars!
You have taken the full weather spectrum in our area to an entirely different level from the very beginning of your launch.
You are sincerely appreciated!
yeah man tell them, centerpoint sucks lmfao
Thank you for the discussion on this today. Smaller communities outside Houston, which rely on electricity for well water for their animals, were also impacted. There are far-reaching urban and rural consequences for these failures. Hope the depth and breadth lead to substantial changes. To be a decade and a half past Ike and do worse when technology and solutions are theoretically better and available is unacceptable.
Do the actual paths of Ike and Beryl figure in your comparison?
It is true that Beryl had a more consequential path in terms of wind damage. Had Ike came ashore with Beryl’s track it would have been absolutely catastrophic for Houston. Nevertheless, when we compare maximum sustained winds over Houston from Beryl and Ike, Ike is substantially higher.
Suggestions…
1.-.Distinguishing between transmision and distribution. They are different infrastructures and face different challenges.
2.-.Reviewing/upgrading the code as we face new challenges (population, climate, demand, or dependence).
3.-.Incentivicing the adoption of technology beyond what the “state of the art” was when the infrastructure was built.
Thank you for all you do!!
Amen Eric!!!🥵
I agree with everything you say about Centerpoint and infrastructure, but what did surprise me is the damage was just close to that of Ike. I was expecting few trees down but it was almost the same as Ike.
Events like this always remind me how ignorant and frankly dumb the general population is, especially in large metropolitans.
I’m a power systems professional. The city has the worst power grid I’ve ever lived in. I think some solutions like concrete poles and buried distribution lines are solid but will take decades to fully implement – far too late to help solve the problem today. I think there are solutions we can do today that will be effective in a reasonably short (<1 year) window.
Pass a city ordnance that forbids any trees within x feet of a main power line that serves more than 1 block. This would apply to public and private property.
Grant the utilities the right to remove trees on private property that fail to meet the prior stipulation.
Mass trimming campaign of trees near smaller distribution lines starting as soon as power is restored.
Interlink circuits for redundancy such that they can be energized at least 2 different ways (eg crossing over a street to connect the circuits on both sides).
Mandate backup generation (not batteries) at internet service providers and cell towers in areas with more than a certain density.
More proactive staging of recovery crews at a lower threshold of damage. We shouldn’t be waiting 2 days for out of town crews to show up.
-More stockpiling of transformers, poles, lines etc. The AI boom has a gold rush of tech companies buying all of this for their datacenters. We should get ahead of the curve and stock enough to get to 4 of these events
I really appreciate this perspective, thanks for sharing.
Some of these are great ideas. Just want to call out one issue – A lot has been called out on the staging of lineman process, however as someone who also has background in the industry the linemen staging is not as easy as it seems. Due to laws and regulation, CP is not allowed to bring ANY linemen in during or before a potential weather event for safety reasons. Therefore the very next day is the earliest they are able to come in. Additionally, most of these linemen are affiliated with different companies and not specialized in Houston’s infrastructure as all cities and companies have different rules and regs. Therefore the day they are brought in requires a brief staging and training to get them “moving on the ground” as effectively as possible.
Your assessment of Centerpoint is right on.
Eric, thank you for the very well written statement. For those who say this should not be compared to Ike I beg to differ. Yes the track of Ike was farther to the east but because of the size folks in the northwest part of Harris County suffered devastating damage. Hope you send this to all officials. Thank you again for all you and Matt do for our area.
Granted usually our busy hurricane season is usually late July Aug Sept so this one was unusual. For those saying they want save up for a generator just letting you all know Texas has an emergency preparedness tax free weekend typically in late April or early May. Generators, batteries and other items are in that list. If you want to save up and can’t afford one now that way you can get a slight break on taxes
Totally agree with your post! Yes, things need to be improved greatly. However, as usual, any work they do will be charged back to us as an increase to our bills. We also need to know where all the money goes that we pay them ALREADY. They are a for profit company that is not investing the profits back into infrastructure. This also needs changing!
Houston is so lucky to have you Eric! Keep it up! You have the credibility, reputation, and notoriety to create change and I’m so thankful you’re using your voice on our behalf. Thank you!
Part of the problem with what happened several years ago with the freeze and now with Beryl is that we need transparency in the interactions between our politicians, that have been elected to serve the public good, and the CEOs and people of that level of those power delivery systems. It is my hope that politicians are not getting donations to sweep things under the rug I don’t know that this is a fact I’m just stating an opinion and we need to look into that as well. Climate and science deniers have no place in this world anymore because the reason we are where we are is because of the constant denial of what is in front of us. We can say that it is certain lobbyists that are getting some good money and we’re the ones that are being left with the chump change.
I have two amateurish rules about tropical systems:
The final landfall of the earliest projected path is almost never the one that comes to pass.
Once struck by a named storm, the likelihood of another strike by a named storm on the same target is relatively low.
Rule 1 didn’t hold this time (ICON was the first long-range Beryl projection I saw and it was showing Houston at the far end). Hoping Rule 2 verifies!
I am fortunate to have had my power restored Wednesday afternoon.
It is the murky information that bothers me most. I was in the orange part of the map and had power restored while people in the blue section did not. On Thursday I was still showing in orange instead of green.
Xfinity is just as bad about communication. Cannot find out any information on when their system will be working again. Do I go to another city to run my business? For how long? I can’t run the business without Internet?
Thank you for all you do. And well said! You summed the CP issue perfectly. I can’t say any more than has already been posted.
I don’t think ANYBODY in this forum has ANY idea how complex the Houston Metro Area electric grid is. It’s not even close to being as simple as most folks portray, nor is it as easy as “just do this and blah…blah…”. Does it need to be better? Absolutely. But the way this city/region is cobbled together over almost 200 years of plopping down homes, businesses, roads, and other infrastructure (that is also likely in need of total overhaul). It would be lovely to see what it could be after a ‘start-from-scratch’ rebuild, but logical people know that can NEVER happen. The fact that we only lose service in the most extreme circumstances as this is a miracle. Most days, weeks, months, YEARS, we never have to give it a second thought.
ERCOT failed to fix the grid as of today. Fo not expect CenterPoint will fix either. It would help if people water soak trees during extreme droughts
I am hearing from friends and reading from online comments that the continued outage is caused by CenterPoint’s failed negotiations with how much to pay the other electric providers who have sent lineman. That the reason they are all just sitting around is because CenterPoint doesn’t want to negotiate. That CenterPoint is refusing to pay for hotels for the linemen. Heads should roll on this. This is something that should have been negotiated before there was even an event. The state should heavily fine CenterPoint and their top brass, if this is true.
Thank you for your concise, well thought out article on the deficincies of CenterPoint.
I would also add the need for homeownership duties, most importantly, trimming / lifting trees in your own yard. We have our trees lifted and trimmed yearly, and only had twigs and leaves to deal with. Neighbors had much more damage and debris, without performing this task. Just as with freezes, trees need watering. It encourgages them to deepen their root system instead of a shallow root system that will topple over in extreme situations.
Just food for thought as we go forward in our exciting weather location.
I don’t disagree except to say that even though Ike was stronger on the scale, we were not in the worst part of it. Beryl hit us with the nasty, ugly powerful eyeball of the northeast quadrant, unlike Ike.
Tree trimming costs are through the roof..Few are privileged with money and time to trim their trees diligently as you do, unless they have the skills and time to do it themselves..
Not everything is under our precise control..You can seemingly do everything right and bad things happen to give you a few days or weeks of weather related misery..
I lived in LaMarque and evacuated to Austin for hurricane carla in 1961. If a catagorie 5 goes up Houston ship channel it will be like a mini Armageddon. What we are experiencing today is an inconvenience
So the consequence of this is everyone with the means goes out and buys a whole home generator for $20k plus. That money would pay for a lot of underground power lines.
Exactly..Not to mention we’ll have a supply shortage of generators in the coming months..If our energy distribution assets stay as pitiful as they are today, Texas and other gulf coast states will become uninhabitable for anybody who is older, not vibrantly healthy, not rich…
A healthy sized robust thunderstorm is over our area now..I normally love and embrace thunderstorms, but not during a period of massive disaster recovery..I am keeping my fingers crossed that this storm doesn’t knock out my power, once again, and kick me to the end of the long line of a million or more homes in the waiting line for power restoration…This kind of misery and stress is unsustainable…
The grid is strained for multiple reasons. Texas has experienced phenomenal economic growth and it has strained our electrical system. There are many more people living here than there was in Ike in 2008 and many, many more people living here during Alicia in 1983. We have done very little to mitigate this strain on our grid. We need to start addressing our economic growth and what we can do to make sure our grid can handle that in the future.
As far a blame? It’s easy point the finger. Our distribution infrastructure needs to be addressed as does our response and preparation for storms. I live in Friendswood and preventive tree pruning would have went a long time.
Thank you to everyone who is commenting and sharing their thoughts. Most of it is helpful and constructive, whereas a minority of input is not. Moderating all of the comments has proven to be a challenge, so we’re going to lock this thread at this point.