CenterPoint Energy braced for Christmas storms, outages in Houston

HOUSTON – With stormy weather headed for the Houston area late Christmas Eve, “it sure doesn’t feel like Christmas,” but CenterPoint Energy says it’s standing by to make sure our holiday plans aren’t canceled.

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In a press release, the energy giant said it has continuously monitored the changing weather and mobilized resources to respond to weather impacts. That means crews are scheduled to work through the holidays and have a plan (if needed) to deploy additional crews to help with restoration efforts.

“We continue to monitor the array of storms and the threat of severe weather expected in the Greater Houston area overnight Christmas Eve,” Matt Lanza, CenterPoint’s chief meteorologist and a member of CenterPoint’s emergency preparedness and response team, said in a news statement. “We are keeping a special eye on the potential for outages that may result from expected high wind gusts and lightning.”

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Meteorologist Justin Stapleton noted how Christmas Eve would be warm, humid and windy with some light showers. Some of these storms may be strong or severe, allowing for small hail and gusty winds later overnight into Christmas morning.

“While the front doesn’t look too threatening, it appears to be arriving in time for ole Kris Kringle to fly over most of greater Houston,” Stapleton said. “The current timing has us storming through the hours of the night. This shouldn’t be a problem at all with Rudolph on Santa’s team – they’ve been through a lot worse.”

Either way, CenterPoint Energy says it’s taking no chances.

“With our entire Houston electric area in the area of ​​only marginal severe weather risk, we do not expect widespread damage and related outages at this time, but we are coordinating our resources and response for all outages,” Lanza explained.

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Considering how now, every time it thunders, Houstonians (like me) feel a little uneasy wondering if the lights will go out. That’s why CenterPoint leaders hope to give people peace of mind if Mother Nature tries to cancel Christmas.

“We know how important it is for homes and businesses to have the power they expect and deserve this holiday season,” Deryl Tumlinson, CenterPoint’s VP of Distribution Operations and Service Delivery, said in a statement. “Therefore, we are now preparing to respond to any potential impacts to our system so that we can safely and quickly restore service to our customers. While it is our year-round practice to respond quickly to any disruptions, we are even more focused on to ensure potential impacts are restored this Christmas and Hannukah holiday.”

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The move is another example of steps CenterPoint is taking to improve customer relations and promote transparency as part of the company’s “preparedness actions,” which include:

• Executed its improved holiday staffing plan: In addition to crews working through the holidays, the company used predictive analytics based on similar storm events to improve the manning plan for preparedness in the event of system impacts.

• Activation of additional frontline electrical crews: Prepared additional local front-line full-time and contract staff to assist with the storm response throughout the Houston region.

• Pre-staging of additional material and equipment: The operations team has prepared additional inventory for deployment in case of damage to poles and other equipment.

• Sharing of customer communications: Sharing safety and preparedness actions with CenterPoint customers across social media and other platforms to help keep customers informed and prepared.

• Preparing to conduct patrols and assess damage: Once storms leave the area and it is safe to do so, CenterPoint crews will be deployed across its service territory to assess damage.