The governor and lieutenant governor say Texas will investigate ongoing power outages around Houston as a result of Hurricane Beryl. The system made landfall near Matagorda, Texas a week ago.
Beryl knocked out power to 2.26 million customers of CenterPoint Energy. Monday morning, CenterPoint said power had been restored to more than two million of those customers and expects to complete restoration to 98% of customers by the end of the day Wednesday.
"We are grateful to our customers for their patience as our crews have worked around-the-clock and in difficult conditions to get the lights and air conditioning back on for over 2 million impacted customers as safely and quickly as possible. We know the remaining customers are counting on us and are committed to restoring power to all remaining customers able to receive it. As we close in on the remaining outages, customers should ensure that there isn't damage to their weatherheads and are able to receive power," Senior Vice President Lynnae Wilson wrote in a statement.
But Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick say the state will investigate CenterPoint's response.
"A freight train's coming. You just heard it," Patrick says of CenterPoint. "You'd better be prepared."
Patrick says the State Senate will hold hearings beginning August 1 to investigate CenterPoint.
"There will be lots of questions, but one of my first questions is, 'Does CenterPoint still look at Houston as a priority of their business?" he says.
Patrick says CenterPoint did not think this would be a "serious storm."
"It's obvious by their preparation," he says. "CenterPoint has to understand, as does every utility company on the coast, that any time there's a tropical storm in the Gulf, you have to prepare as if it's going to be the worst storm to hit Houston."
Patrick says the hearing will also look at CenterPoint's response time.
"After the storm, you say you need a day or more of assessment. We get it, and we know there are 48 hours of training for out-of-state crews so they're not electrocuted. All systems are not the same so they don't damage the systems more," he says.
But Patrick says CenterPoint "did not prepare for even the least." He says the hearing will look at why CenterPoint did not start planning before Beryl's landfall, and why the company "cut your spending on vegetation and clearing."
"I want to know: Have you been out there negotiating with crews coming in from out-of-state on how much you're going to pay them?" he says.
Governor Greg Abbott says he will send a letter to the chairman of the Public Utilities Commission asking for an investigation to "find out what the reason for failure was and what must be done to fix it."
"I will work with legislators to craft laws to improve power reliability, but, and here's the important part, we are still in hurricane season right now," Abbott says. "Solutions cannot wait until the next session. They are needed now to minimize power disruptions as we respond to tropical weather for the remainder of this summer and this fall."
Abbott says he wants CenterPoint to provide his office with a list of actions it can take to prevent outages by July 31. He says that list must include plans to remove vegetation that could affect power lines. Abbott says CenterPoint may spend less than other providers on vegetation removal and must complete removal by the end of August.
Abbott also says CenterPoint appeared to "have been caught off-guard" by the track of Beryl and extent of damage.
"A power company on the Gulf Coast should never be caught off guard," he says. "It should remain eternally vigilant, and even then, a Category One hurricane should never compromise the power system in the State of Texas."
Abbott says CenterPoint will have to provide a list of steps to prevent widespread outages in another tropical storm.
Third, Abbott says CenterPoint must explain how workers from different utilities can be pre-staged ahead of a tropical system.
"Some reports contend many of those workers were slow getting into the field because of a variety of different reasons," he says. He says those reasons include waiting until after the storm to train workers, failing to position them immediately after the storm hit and "haggling" with workers over pay.
CenterPoint says it is currently "repositioning crews and equipment to address localized outages and areas with significant structural damage to restore electricity to those customers who still remain without power." The company says it is providing estimated dates for restoration and "working to restore customers sooner than expected."
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