Maurice B. Shaw’s Post

𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙄𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙪𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙋𝙤𝙨𝙩-𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙢 𝘽𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙡 After the devastation caused by Hurricane Beryl, Texas residents might find themselves financially responsible for some of the recovery costs. Utilities like CenterPoint Energy, through a regulatory process with the Public Utility Commission of Texas, can recoup storm recovery costs by adding them to customer bills. This process not only covers the expenses but historically allows utilities a profit margin, which can incentivize delaying preventive measures in favor of more profitable post-disaster recoveries. 𝐀𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐞𝐝 $1 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬, 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐬, 𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐦'𝐬 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐡. #EnergySector #ConsumerRights #UtilityCosts #StormRecovery #TexasWeather #PublicPolicy #UtilityRegulation https://lnkd.in/gwGnRnng

Some perspective on the situation in Houston: CenterPoint Energy has about 2.6 million customers. Over 2.2 million of them were left without power following Hurricane Beryl, by far the largest outage in the company's history. As of 1 p.m. CT, Wednesday, roughly 48 hours after the storm passed, CenterPoint had restored electricity to more than 914,000 customers, representing 40% of the customers impacted. Response actions have included mobilizing more than 12,000 restoration personnel, including mutual assistance professionals from 13 states, and assigned them to 18 staging sites, more than they've ever stood up. Per the company: "The outages addressed to this point in the process have been largely related to CenterPoint's distribution system of poles and wires, which is designed to lock out in order to prevent further damage from debris and protect public safety – similar to a home electrical breaker tripping as a safety measure. However, certain parts of CenterPoint's service area experienced major damage, ...where its system will need to be rebuilt." In other words, what has been done so far has been the quick and "easy" work. From here forward it will be neighborhood by neighborhood and house to house. This is going to take some time.

My neighbors and I are still recuperating from the aftermath of hurricane Beryl. (Those are piles of tree branches in everyone's front yard all along the streets.) It’s so much worse in other areas. Moreover, most of our resilient city of Houston is still bouncing back from it's impact, showing the world our unwavering spirit and determination. The recovery has been challenging, but Houstonians have come together to support one another, rebuild homes, and restore our vibrant communities in and around the region. As we continue to rebuild - again - we're also preparing for the future. From enhanced flood defenses to improved emergency response plans, we're making sure that Houston is ready to face whatever comes our way. This was the 3rd time my specific area has been hit hard this year and we are not even in peak season. I've already spent THOUSANDS of dollars on removing storm damaged trees and debris from my property within the last 3 months. While the trees may not seem like a big deal, there are many other residual economic affects. As we plan for the next event, let's at least consider the dangerous effects of long term power outages and the need for some type of backup generator, whether it's solar+battery or gas. Houston area residents reported outages averaging 3 to 7 days in 90F degrees. There is still uncertainty that utility providers have actually learned lessons from this, not just from the last 3 months but from similar instances over the last several years. To provide more access to affordable power outage solutions, BLUETTI has teamed up with ABC Supply Co. Inc. in the Houston area help support all types and sizes of battery backup (portable & whole home) needs of Houston area contractors / installers and their clients so we can all better prepare ourselves for the next long term outage. Stay safe, stay prepared, and let's keep our city strong! 💪❤️ #HoustonStrong #Resilience #Community #HurricanePreparedness #BLUETTI #ABCSupply

Great look at CenterPoint Energy's Hurricane Response Initiatives and where they stand. Grid investment text posted below. Shout out Jason Ryan for you and team's continued advocacy and education to get the industry and public information. Great work DataCapable team! Grid Investments • By August 1, we will complete visual inspections on all overhead distribution circuits impacted by Hurricane Beryl to identify equipment or vegetation-related issues that could create future outages. This action is completed. • By August 15, we will complete aerial imagery on all overhead distribution circuits impacted by Hurricane Beryl to identify equipment or vegetation-related issues that could create future outages. • By August 15, informed by the completion and analysis of our inspection, we will execute identified repairs based on risk. This work will be completed by August 31. • We will design all new distribution structures and replacements to standards that address extreme wind and loading conditions.2 • By December 31, we expect to harden nearly 350 distribution line miles to the latest extreme wind standard on a reliability-risk basis. • By August 31, we will strategically deploy at least 300 automated devices to reduce sustained interruptions in major storm events and reduce restoration time. • By August 31, 100% of the remaining distribution poles planned for replacement will be replaced with composite poles (approximately 1,000 poles) Zpryme Froliq

Check out Bloomberg News' deep dive into why the utility powering the US "Energy Capital of the World" struggled to get the lights back on after a relatively-weak hurricane. Our investigation, based on interviews with nearly a dozen experts along with public filings and on-the-ground reports, found two major factors contributed to the widespread disruption. 1) CenterPoint failed to call up enough workers before the storm hit. 2) The utility struggled with managing tree trimming around its poles and wires. In addition, the utility has struggled with providing reliable service to customers for years. #Houston #climate #blackouts

𝘾𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙋𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩 𝙀𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙮 𝙁𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙨 $1.8 𝘽𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝘾𝙤𝙨𝙩𝙨 𝘼𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙒𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 CenterPoint Energy is estimating restoration costs from 𝐇𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐥 to be between $1.2 billion and $1.3 billion. Hurricane Beryl, which hit near Matagorda, Texas, caused significant damage, leading to power outages for nearly 2.3 million customers. The company also anticipates an additional $425 million to $475 million in charges related to storm events in May, and at least $100 million for the 2024 𝐃𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐨, bringing total estimated restoration costs to around $1.8 billion. The largest Texas power provider, serving 2.9 million electric customers in the greater Houston area and southwestern Indiana, faces significant financial pressure as it addresses these extensive damages. Furthermore, restaurants in Houston have filed lawsuits against CenterPoint, seeking over $100 million in damages, citing incompetence and negligence in the utility's response to Hurricane Beryl. Despite these challenges, CenterPoint's net income for the second quarter increased to $228 million, or 36 cents per share, up from $106 million, or 17 cents per share, a year earlier. This rise in income is attributed to higher electricity demand during the peak summer months. CenterPoint's comprehensive restoration efforts and the financial implications highlight the ongoing challenges utilities face in managing and mitigating the impact of severe weather events. #EnergyRestoration #HurricaneBeryl #CenterPointEnergy #TexasPower #UtilityCosts #PowerOutages #HoustonNews #StormDamage #FinancialImpact https://lnkd.in/gJJntw2T

A very challenging situation in Houston. Grid #resiliency will continue to be front of mind for all #utilities as extreme weather grows more frequent and our nation's electric infrastructure ages. And, increasingly, customers will invest in their own resiliency solutions (#microgrids, #DERs, #V2X, etc.) where loads are too important and utilities are not able to do enough.

Ahead of the Atlantic hurricane season, Dominion Energy Virginia announced this week that it has finished burying 2,000 miles of overhead power lines as part of its Strategic Underground Program.   "We launched this program a decade ago after finding that a significant number of storm-related power outages were occurring in a relatively small number of areas," said Ed Baine, President of Dominion Energy Virginia. "By burying the lines in these outage-prone areas, we're not only reducing the number of outages, but we're also shortening how long it takes to get the power back on." #undergrounding #powerlines #powerdelivery #gridresilience #gridreliability #gridmodernization #powerindustry #extremeweather #poweroutage #damageprevention #underground #powergrid #criticalinfrastructure #PDI2 https://lnkd.in/epf6pHH6

I recently spoke to Ivan Penn at NYT about Hurricane Beryl’s impact to Texas, and the need for US utilities to invest in resiliency improvement programs. For a Category 1 storm to result in million plus customer outages needing upwards of a week to restore indicates that utilities should be looking at resiliency programs in terms of system hardening, restoration process efficiencies, and identifying islands of resiliency to minimize the “customer misery zone”.   Here’s a link to the full article: https://nyti.ms/3XU0AE8 If you have any questions, please get in touch. #Utilities #Extremeweather #Gridresilience