Texas Gov. Greg Abbott demands answers as customers remain without power after Beryl

Around 270,000 homes and business in the Houston region are still without electricity almost a full week after Hurricane Beryl struck Texas. Greg Abbott said on Sunday that he wants an investigation of the utility’s response to the storm and answers about their preparations.

Abbott, who returned to his home state after a trip to Asia for economic development, said that “power companies along the Gulf Coast need to be prepared to cope with hurricanes.”

CenterPoint Energy, the utility that provides electricity in the fourth largest city of the United States, has been under increasing scrutiny for its slow recovery. The storm left many people without air conditioning during the scorching summer heat.

Abbott announced that he would be sending a letter the Public Utility Commission of Texas, requesting it to investigate what caused restoration to take so long, and what needs to be done. Beryl ripped down transmission lines in the Houston area and uprooted trees. It also snapped branches which crashed into power lines.

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Abbott has said that with hurricane season still months away, he will give CenterPoint until the last day of the month to explain what it plans to do to minimize or eliminate power failures in the event of a storm. He added that the company will have to provide detailed plans for removing vegetation that threatens powerlines.

Abbott said that CenterPoint did not have “an adequately large number of workers prestaged” prior to the storm.

CenterPoint, following Abbott’s press conference, said that its priority was to “bring power back to all remaining customers in a safe and timely manner.” The utility added that it expects to restore power to 90% its customers by Monday. CenterPoint stated that it would work with local and state leaders, and conduct a “thorough evaluation of our response.”

CenterPoint said that they have been investing in the region for many years to make it more resilient to storms.

Utility has defended their preparations for the storm, and has said that they have brought in approximately 12,000 extra workers from outside Houston. It said that it would have been dangerous to place those workers in the predicted storm impact zone before Beryl arrived on land.

Brad Tutunjian said that CenterPoint Energy’s vice president of regulatory policy, Brad Tutunjian stated last week, the extensive damage done to trees and poles made it difficult to restore power as quickly.

Jason Wells, CenterPoint’s president and CEO posted on the company’s website Sunday that more than 2,100 utility poles had been damaged by the storm, and that more than 18,600 trees needed to be cut down from power lines. This affected over 75% the utility’s circuits for distribution.