Houston metro could need 50% more electricity by 2031

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that Greater Houston is growing. So is its voracious appetite for electricity. In fact, CenterPoint Energy’s Houston-area customers could require 50% more electricity during peak usage times by 2031, company executives told investors Tuesday. That’s like adding two San Antonio metros to the Houston region. Even then, the projection is a “conservative forecast,” meaning the region’s actual electricity needs might end up much higher, CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call Tuesday morning. The local power grid would require billions of dollars of investments to accommodate this growth, if it pans out — a lucrative opportunity for CenterPoint, since the company makes money by spending big on capital projects.

“We’re not seeing growth slow down in the Greater Houston region. If anything, it’s accelerating. So, I think the electric transmission build-out will only accelerate as we get into the next decade,” Wells said Tuesday. The cost of those projects, meanwhile, would be paid for via electricity rate increases spread out across CenterPoint’s expanding customer base. CenterPoint earned $297 million in profits in the first quarter, a 15% decrease from the same period last year. Still, Tuesday’s earnings call was upbeat as executives touted the company’s plan to spend more than $27 billion in capital projects through 2030. Approximately $20 billion of those investments are planned for CenterPoint’s electric utility businesses in Houston and Indiana. Another $7 billion is planned for the company’s natural gas utilities across Texas, Minnesota, Indiana and Ohio.