Texas utilities power forward with post-Beryl restoration efforts

Electric utilities in the Lone Star State are progressing as fast as they can in their efforts to restore power to millions of Texans in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, which caused excessive power outages, access challenges, downed trees, and water damage amid the soaring summer heat.

An army of more than 15,000 workers from at least 16 states is helping handle response and restoration work and will continue to work around the clock until power is restored to every customer who can safely receive it, according to the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), which represents all of the nation’s investor-owned electric companies.

“We know that being without power is a hardship, especially during the peak of summer,” said Scott Aaronson, senior vice president of EEI’s Security and Preparedness division. “We just want to reemphasize that one of the hallmarks of this industry is mutual assistance… and all of these crews are committed to help get the power back on in Texas.”

“The calvary is there and is restoring power as quickly as possible,” he told Daily Energy Insider.

As of today, CenterPoint Energy said it has restored more than 1.1 million customers impacted by Hurricane Beryl and expects to have an additional 400,000 customers restored on July 12, and another 350,000 customers restored by the end of the day on Sunday.

“Having substantially completed our damage assessment and restoration of customers impacted by circuit related outages, our crews are now focusing on repairing more localized damage, including in the hardest-hit areas,” said Lynnae Wilson, senior vice president of CenterPoint Energy’s Electric Business, on Thursday. “We know that our customers are counting on us, and we are committed to working as safely and quickly as we can until every last customer is back on.”

CenterPoint also said that it had deployed a mobile generation unit to a hospital in North Houston, and others have been deployed to some cooling centers, water treatment facilities, and assisted living centers where they can temporarily provide power. More are expected to be deployed in the coming days, the utility said.

AEP Texas crews this morning reported they had restored electric service to 94 percent of the 35,500 customers left without power after the storm made landfall early Monday.

Meanwhile, Entergy Texas crews have restored power to more than 50 percent of its 252,460 impacted customers, and the utility’s workforce of more than 2,400 continues working to restore electricity, with a goal of doing so for 75 percent of its customers by the end of the day Friday.

According to EEI, every electric company has a detailed plan for restoring power after storms.

Typically, one of the first steps is to make sure that power is no longer flowing through downed lines, and then restoration proceeds based on established priorities.

Downed lines, most often caused by overly saturated ground and fallen trees, represent a major challenge for utility company crews working to restore power after one of these severe weather events.

Aaronson said that Hurricane Beryl caused considerable ground saturation in numerous areas of Texas and the storm produced high winds. As a result, there are massive amounts of debris that are hindering crews’ accessibility to impacted areas, particularly those with power lines that serve only a few customers or a small community.

“It takes a lot of people power and effort to get to these impacted areas to even start the restoration process,” said Aaronson.

The ongoing investments that Texas electric companies have made in grid resilience and infrastructure in recent years are helping utility crews restore power, Aaronson added, pointing to their continuing investments in smart meters, reinforced pole infrastructure, improved situational awareness, undergrounding of the lines, and tree and vegetation management, among others.

In CenterPoint’s territory, for example, the company reported that trees across the Greater Houston area contributed heavily to outages.

“Beryl’s hurricane-force winds blew trees into our electric lines and infrastructure in the Humble area,” the company tweeted on X, formerly Twitter, earlier this afternoon. “Vegetation management teams and linemen are working in the area to restore service to impacted areas.”

CenterPoint has a restoration workforce of approximately 4,500 people including skilled lineworkers and vegetation management professionals, who are responsible for removing trees, branches, and other vegetation that impact power lines.

In addition to the local workforce, and included in the 4,500, are requested mutual assistance resources to assist in restoration efforts, the company said.

At the same time, the utilities also want residents and businesses to know that while they may not see crews on their block, work is diligently ongoing behind the scenes to restore power.

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