CenterPoint Energy is moving into Phase 2 of the Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative

HOUSTON – CenterPoint Energy has announced that it has moved to the next phase of its Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative.

In August, the energy company launched a new initiative focused on a series of immediate measures to improve resilience and reduce the risk of outages from the next major storm or hurricane. The plan was a direct response from Gov. Greg Abbott after the deadly power outage caused by Hurricane Beryl. It sets out an accelerated timeline to establish concrete actions to strengthen the city's electrical infrastructure and grid, as well as improve communications and emergency coordination.

New measures in the next phase include strengthening the energy system and operations over the next eight months and before the start of the 2025 hurricane season.

Actions in the second GHRI phase will help enable a self-healing network, reduce the length and frequency of outages, and result in more than 125 million fewer outage minutes per year for customers in the greater Houston area.

Work must be completed before the 2025 hurricane season or June 1, 2025:

• Installing new or replacing 25,000 poles that meet extreme wind standards

• Prune or remove riskier vegetation on 4,000 miles of power lines

• We are installing 4,500 automation devices, called trip savers, and 350 smart grid switching devices as part of our effort to build a self-healing grid that uses automation to respond more quickly to outages

• Burying more than 400 miles of power lines underground

• Launch a year-round public emergency preparedness and safety communications campaign

• Strengthening our local partnerships with agencies and partners critical to our emergency response

“We know how important reliable, resilient energy is to our 2.8 million customers and that the Greater Houston area is the economic engine for the state of Texas and the energy capital of the world. That’s why we’re so focused on modernizing our infrastructure as we work toward our goal of building the most resilient coastal grid in the country that will meet Houstonians’ energy needs for years to come,” said Jason Wells, President and CEO of CenterPoint.

CenterPoint customers can track progress toward meeting all GHRI obligations at www.CenterPointEnergy.com/TakingAction.

As part of its long-term plan, CenterPoint also proposes to invest at least $5 billion from 2026 to 2028, the largest investment in Greater Houston's infrastructure in the company's nearly 160-year history. At least $5 billion is part of CenterPoint's new capital investment plan, which calls for more than $21 billion in total capital investments in its Texas electric and gas systems from 2025 to 2030, exceeding the current plan.