New data reveals CenterPoint’s unprecedented glitches

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that two months after May’s derecho took CenterPoint Energy’s outage-tracking map down, the utility’s data systems are still malfunctioning on an unprecedented scale, new data shows. In the wake of Hurricane Beryl, the ongoing technical challenges are exacerbating concerns about CenterPoint’s ability to adequately track and respond to power issues in real time. On Monday, as millions dealt in the dark with Beryl’s landfall – and the flooding, oppressive heat and storm damage that followed – the utility’s technology crisis left customers in a frustrating information vacuum. CenterPoint’s outage portal displayed only general statistics on power loss in its Bayou City service area, which covers a dozen counties. The information proved useless to customers searching for updates on local outages and recovery times.

Meanwhile, the system that once fed CenterPoint’s map – which has quietly continued to report data under the hood of the utility’s website – became overwhelmed almost immediately after Beryl reached the greater Houston area. It glitched for hours through Monday afternoon. The utility waited an additional 24 hours before posting a new outage-tracking map online. And that map came with a disclaimer warning about potential inaccuracies and lags. “With the tool not functioning as it should, we worked to provide a short-term solution during the multi-day event,” said Logan Anderson, a CenterPoint spokesperson, in an email. “We recognize the inconvenience to our customers.” New data made available by a Maryland-based technology company shows what the CenterPoint system should have been reporting all along. A wave of blackouts kept more than 60% of Harris County’s CenterPoint customers in the dark for over 24 hours. Restoration efforts progressed slowly, leaving over 865,000 customers still without power at 5 p.m. Thursday.