CenterPoint Energy, the utility hit by Hurricane Beryl
CenterPoint Energy delivers electricity to about 2.8 million customers in the Greater Houston area, plus electricity and natural gas service to a combined 7 million customers across Texas, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi and Ohio. After Hurricane Beryl in July 2024 left around 80% of Houston customers without power, the company has been running the largest grid resiliency program in its 160-year history.
- The size of the CenterPoint Energy network and the regions it covers
- Why power outages happen, especially around Houston
- The Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative and the $5.75 billion Systemwide Resiliency Plan
- How automation, undergrounding and AI are being used to limit storm impact
From Houston to the Twin Cities: a multi-state electric and gas footprint
CenterPoint's electric utility, CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, serves the Greater Houston area, while a separate gas distribution business operates across multiple states. The Houston territory carries about a quarter of the load on the ERCOT system.
- About 2.8 million electric customers in the Greater Houston area.
- Around 7 million combined electric and gas customers across Texas, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi and Ohio.
- Critical customers include the Port of Houston, the Texas Medical Center, two airports and several chemical refineries.
The Houston Electric business is regulated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT). CenterPoint Energy (NYSE: CNP) is headquartered in Houston.
Why Gulf Coast storms break the CenterPoint grid
The Houston territory is one of the most weather-exposed grids in the U.S., with hurricanes, derechos, flooding and extreme heat all hitting in the same year.
Hurricanes and tropical storms
Hurricane Beryl in July 2024 left about 2.3 million CenterPoint customers without power, with hundreds of thousands still in the dark a week later. Beryl is the reference event that drives the entire current resiliency program.
Derechos and severe wind events
The May 2024 Houston derecho also caused widespread outages on the CenterPoint grid, with hurricane-force winds knocking down trees and lines across a wide footprint just weeks before Beryl.
Trees and vegetation
Tree contact remains a major cause of unplanned power outages on the network. Vegetation along more than 2,000 miles of lines was trimmed during the first phase of the Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative, and a three-year cycle is being adopted across transmission and distribution lines.
Flooding and substations
The Greater Houston area is highly exposed to flooding. CenterPoint plans to raise 99% of substations above the 500-year flood plain as part of the Systemwide Resiliency Plan.
The Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative
After Hurricane Beryl, CenterPoint launched the Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI) and filed the multi-year Systemwide Resiliency Plan (SRP) with the PUCT, the largest single grid resiliency investment in its history.
CenterPoint resiliency program in numbers
$5.75 billion Systemwide Resiliency Plan filed for 2026 to 2028.
26,000 storm-resilient poles already installed under GHRI Phase 1 and 2.
400 miles of power lines moved underground.
More than 5,100 automation devices added to the electric system.
Target: 130,000 stronger storm-resilient poles, 50%+ of the system underground, 99% of substations above the 500-year flood plain.
Expected reduction of storm-related outage time by 1.3 billion minutes through 2029, and 500,000+ customers spared in a Beryl-like storm.
Once fully implemented, the SRP is expected to reduce systemwide outages by 125 million minutes per year and save approximately $50 million per year in storm-related costs.
Automated switches, stronger poles and live outage tracker
Self-healing grid devices
CenterPoint has installed 4,500 trip savers and 350 Intelligent Grid Switching Devices to build a self-healing system. When a fault occurs, automation isolates the damaged section and restores most customers within seconds. The plan is for 100% of lines serving the largest customer counts to have self-healing automation.
Targeted undergrounding
Beyond the 400 miles already moved underground, the SRP targets more than 50% of the entire electric system being underground, with priority on outage-prone segments and high-density areas.
AI for vegetation and weather risk
Partnerships with Neara (asset modeling) and Technosylva (extreme weather and wildfire risk) bring AI-driven predictive modeling to vegetation management and grid hardening prioritization.
Substation flood protection
Raising 99% of substations above the 500-year flood plain protects the most critical assets from the type of flood damage that has historically taken parts of the grid offline for days.
The CenterPoint outage tracker and customer services
CenterPoint outage tracker
CenterPoint runs an Outage Tracker that shows live outage information by address or zip code with estimated restoration times. The tracker has been rebuilt and load-tested to handle six times the load of a Beryl-type event.
Mobile app and alerts
The CenterPoint mobile app gives access to the outage tracker, lets customers report a power outage and pushes proactive SMS, email and app notifications when service is interrupted.
EV charging programs
CenterPoint runs make-ready EV charging programs in Texas and its other states, with a focus on supporting commercial and fleet charging in the Houston area.
Oncor and the main Houston ISPs
For a wider view of how the U.S. electric grid works and why outages happen, see the U.S. power outage page. Other Texas utilities include Oncor in North Texas. For internet outages in the same Houston footprint, the most common providers are AT&T, Xfinity and Spectrum.