CenterPoint Energy hosts open house events for community feedback
HOUSTON - CenterPoint Energy is asking for the community's feedback after power outages caused by Hurricane Beryl. The energy provider is hosting open house events across the Greater Houston Area beginning on Saturday.
"Most importantly, we want to collect their feedback, hear from them on how we can continue to improve," said Alyssia Oshodi, the director of communication for CenterPoint Energy.
The energy provider said the event is part of their Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative, which is a plan to reduce the risk of power outages following major storms. The plan comes after CenterPoint has been under fire from Houston residents and lawmakers for their handling of outages following Hurricane Beryl.
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"We’ve got goals set in regard to our vegetation management, pole replacement, as well as some equipment and installations," said Oshodi.
Maya Williams showed up to the event to tell CenterPoint energy how she feels about her electric bill. She wants to make sure she’s being charged correctly and is worried about overgrown trees near power lines.
"We can’t control the wind but what you could control is what the wind is gone blow over onto your powerlines. That’s just common sense," said Maya Williams, a resident in the University of Houston corridor.
Williams said she shelled out a whopping $4,000 for a generator after the hurricane. She blames CenterPoint’s unreliable service for forcing her to spend thousands.
"No electricity for several days. A tree fell and destroyed some of my neighbor’s property and my property," said Williams.
Now, CenterPoint said they are taking about 40 actions to strengthen the grid and reduce the risk of outages. Since the launch of the Greater Houston Area Resiliency Initiative on August 5th, CenterPoint Energy said they've been working to replace approximately 1,000 wooden poles with stronger fiberglass poles, trimming vegetation, and installing 300 automated devices called trip savers. It's a process many said should have been done prior to the hurricane.
"We pay too much in electricity for this to be so shaky," said Williams.
Saturday was the first of 16 community open house events that will be held across Houston over the next six weeks. For more information and locations of the events, click here.