CenterPoint CEO defends power delays, vows better communication

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that Jason Wells’ home in Houston lost power for two days thanks to Hurricane Beryl, but the CenterPoint Energy CEO didn’t notice it much. He’s been working a lot. Plus, he has a backup generator. Hurricane Beryl knocked 2.26 million CenterPoint customers offline, and with about half of those restored four days later, Wells is in the eye of a storm. Hot and sweaty residents of the Houston area are enraged, officials are asking more and more pointed questions and 12,000 utility crew members are fanned across the region installing new poles and power lines. “I think we could do a better job of communicating expectations with our customers, and I personally own that,” Wells said.

In his first media comments since the storm, Wells talked positively about the restoration efforts, acknowledged the company should and will do more to let the public know what’s going on and said more investment is planned to harden Houston’s defenses from its most common threats of wind and rain. Here are key points Wells made during an exclusive 30-minute interview about the recovery, why it was necessary to restore power to so many customers to begin with, and the criticism the company has faced as it makes repairs. “I understand how frustrating it is to be without power, especially in this heat. I understand what a difficult situation this is for our customers, but I am proud of the progress we have made. Restoring 1.1 million customers within effectively 48 hours of the storm’s passing is faster than what many of our peers have seen in the past 10 named storms.” Wells notes that fewer than 1 million customers lost power in the May wind event, and many likely stayed off longer than the vast majority of those impacted Beryl will be. Unlike the wind event, however, which caught the region off-guard, CenterPoint had days to plan for the hurricane and prepare for a possible major restoration job. Believing the storm would stay mostly to the Houston metro region’s west, CenterPoint mobilized about 3,000 contractors last week. Over the weekend, as Beryl crept north and appeared ready for a direct hit on the region, CenterPoint called in more resources to be ready. About 10,000 contractors came in to augment CenterPoint’s own 2,000-person crew.