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​FACTS MATTER: We are taking action​​

FACTS MATTER: We are taking action

Whether it’s about the progress of our Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative, our investment in the grid, or explaining our rates and bills, we want our customers to know the facts. As part of that commitment, we will be sharing important facts so that our customers can better understand what we do, our impact, and how we are working hard every day to better serve our community.

DID YOU KNOW?

More than 60% of our residential customers are served by 26,000 miles of underground power lines – that’s 46% of our 56,000 miles of power lines, compared to about 30% for other utilities nationwide.

FACTS ABOUT​​

Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative

Facts About: Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative
  • We have heard the call to action from our customers and elected officials, and we are responding with bold actions.
  • Our defining goal, going forward, is this: to build the most resilient coastal grid in the country that can better withstand the extreme weather of the future.
  • On August 5, we announced more than 40 actions we’re taking to strengthen our resiliency, improve our public and customer communications, and develop stronger local community partnerships so we are better prepared to respond to the next storm or hurricane.
  • We have completed almost all of these actions, including all of those with a September deadline.
  • We’ve also completed the following core resiliency actions ahead of schedule:
    • Replacing more than 1,100 poles with stronger fiberglass poles that can withstand winds up to 132 MPH.
    • Installing more than 300 automation devices that help reduce the impact of outages and help reduce restoration times for those who may lose power.
    • Trimming or removing high-risk vegetation – like limbs or trees that could fall during a storm and cause an outage – near 2,000 miles of power lines.
  • On September 30, we announced a comprehensive suite of new actions as part of the second phase of the GHRI to strengthen the electric grid across the Greater Houston area to be completed by June 1, 2025, including:
    • Installing new or replacing 25,000 poles that meet extreme wind standards.
    • Trimming or removing higher-risk vegetation across 4,000 miles of power lines.
    • Installing 4,500 automation devices, known as trip savers, and 350 Intelligent Grid Switching Devices as part of our effort to build a self-healing grid that utilizes automation to respond to outages faster.
    • Undergrounding more than 400 miles of power lines.
    • Launching a year-round public emergency preparedness and safety communications campaign.
    • Strengthening our local partnerships with agencies and partners critical to our emergency response efforts.
  • When completed, we estimate these actions will lead to more than 125 million fewer outage minutes annually for our customers in the Greater Houston area.
  • As part of our longer-term mission, we are proposing to invest approximately $5 billion between 2026 and 2028.

FACTS ABOUT

Your Bill

Facts About: Your Energy Bill
  • Did you know the portion of customers’ electric bills that covers CenterPoint’s system modernization costs was an average of $49 a month a decade ago, and it’s still about $49 a month today?
  • Even with annual inflation averaging around 2.8%, our rates have been flat over the last 10 years.
  • We have also proposed foregoing approximately $110 million in profit, which is equivalent to more than half of the profits anticipated from our lease of temporary emergency generation assets.

See chart to the right:

Some have stated that CenterPoint’s electricity rates are higher than other investor-owned utilities in Texas. The fact is that CenterPoint’s rates are highly competitive with other Texas utilities over the course of a year (rates for all Texas utilities change over the course of the year due to seasonality).

For example, in August, CenterPoint’s rates were the lowest compared to other Texas utilities.

Average Monthly CEHE Charges

Click image to expand

FACTS ABOUT

Our Investment

Facts About: Our Investment  
 
  • Over the last five years, we’ve invested over $7 billion in the local electric system, while at the same time keeping rates for our portion of customers’ energy bills flat.
  • The investments have prioritized hardening our transmission system including substations, thousands of poles, thousands of miles of wires, and all the electrical infrastructure that delivers energy to your home. The resiliency actions we’re taking as part of our Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative are focused on building the distribution grid of the future.
  • We have been able to increase our investments without raising rates by increasing our customer base, more efficiently financing our operations and reducing costs by 1 to 2% each year.
  • And this is just a part of the work we’re going to undertake to make the larger energy system in the Greater Houston Area more reliable, resilient, and safe, as we plan on investing over $21 billion in Texas from 2025 through 2030.
  • This investment will help support our increasing customer base while also making our grid the most resilient coastal grid in the country, reducing the impact of outages from storms and hurricanes.

FACTS ABOUT

Our Outage Tracker

We launched a new cloud-based outage tracker at CenterPointEnergy.com/OutageTracker.

TRACKER CAPABILITIES:

  • Our new outage tracker is a cloud-based system that can handle increased user traffic during a storm and is updated every 5 minutes.
  • The outage tracker is mobile- and ADA-friendly, making it more accessible, readable, and legible.
  • Customers can search outages by city, county, and zip code.
  • Customers can get alerts about outages and estimated restoration times directly to their mobile devices by signing up for our Power Alert Service® at CenterPointEnergy.com/PowerAlertService.
Outage Tracker 

FACTS ABOUT

Undergrounding Power Lines

  • Approximately 60% of our residential customers are served via underground, and CenterPoint will continue to identify strategic opportunities to underground lines.
  • We currently have approximately 56,000 miles of distribution lines and 26,000 of those miles are underground, about 46% of our power lines.
  • Underground lines are less likely to be affected by certain types of extreme weather events, reducing the impact of outages for our customers.
  • Undergrounding isn’t the solution in all areas we serve because it can be an expensive solution for customers in many cases for construction as well as operations/maintenance.
  • Installing fiberglass/composite poles can provide similar resiliency benefits and is more cost effective than undergrounding infrastructure.
  • We will also bury facilities in areas of higher risk, like freeway crossings, raise substations that are vulnerable to flooding, and replace existing infrastructure with new materials that meet or exceed the standards for extreme wind.
Undergrounding Power Lines 
 

Forward-Looking Statements
This website includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used on this site, the words "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "goal," "intend," "may," "objective," "plan," "potential," "predict," "projection," "should," "target," "will" or other similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, which include statements regarding our resiliency investments, are based upon assumptions of management which are believed to be reasonable at the time made and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Any statements on this website regarding future events that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement contained on this website speaks only as of the date of this publishing. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the provided forward-looking information include risks and uncertainties relating to: (1) the impact of pandemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) financial market conditions; (3) general economic conditions; (4) the timing and impact of future regulatory and legislative decisions; and (5) other factors, risks and uncertainties discussed in CenterPoint Energy's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 and CenterPoint's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2024 and June 30, 2024 and other reports CenterPoint Energy or its subsidiaries may file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.