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CenterPoint maintains that storm response was good
By T.L. Hamilton
THE WOODLANDS – CenterPoint officials will appear before disappointed customers tonight to discuss the energy company’s response to Hurricane Ike’s damage, which left many South Montgomery County residents without power for up to two weeks.
The company provides power to 100,122 customers in Montgomery County, exclusively along the southern region. The compnay serves Spring, Fox Run, Imperial Oaks, Sterling Ridge and Creekside Park residents.
CenterPoint officials are scheduled to appear at a moderated forum from 7-9 p.m. at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott, located at Six Pines Drive and Lake Robbins Drive.
Despite hundreds of angry calls from powerless residents to The Woodlands Association President Joel Deretchin, state Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, and CenterPoint, the energy company maintains that its response to the storm was satisfactory.
“I’m sure people want to share their feelings and have an opportunity to vent,” said Leticia Lowe, CenterPoint spokeswoman. “But we had a good plan and we executed our plan. Before the storm, we advised customers to be prepared to be without power at least two weeks, if not longer, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Lowe said officials are planning to show photos of some of the damage to the company’s lines and discuss their systematic method for restoring power at the forum.
The company revised that method, when necessary, growing its tree trimmer and linemen staff from about 7,000 to more than 11,000 workers and increasing its staging areas from four to 11, she said.
However, the experience did give the company a chance to learn and improve, Lowe said.
The company is working on a formal review of the storm response and will apply new procedures where applicable.
“With every new experience, you learn from it,” she said.
Lowe couldn’t say what percentage of county residents were without power for more than a week, or exactly how many are still without power, saying there are only a few isolated pockets throughout the greater Houston area.
Workers started attempting to restore area substations immediately after the storm hit, she said.
Some were powered up completely the day of the storm, while others were not restored until Sept. 15 or later.
One station was not fully restored until Sept. 28, Lowe said.
In one case, advanced technology turned out to be more of an obstacle than a lifesaver for the company’s communication.
Out-of-state workers not trained on CenterPoint’s communication system couldn’t transmit information easily. In some cases, information had to be manually submitted, which slowed the company’s reporting to its customers.
“While we were prepared, we hadn’t had a hurricane in this area for 25 years,” Lowe said.
Many CenterPoint customers in the county were particularly embittered because the majority of the county is served by Entergy, which had power restored quicker than CenterPoint. In some cases, residents could look across the street at homes that had power while they were still in the dark.
However, residents can’t simply switch from one company to another to avoid long outages in the future.
In the majority of Montgomery County, Entergy is both the company that sells and maintains power. But along the southern region, CenterPoint is the company that maintains poles, wires and infrastructure, Lowe said.
“No matter who they buy power from, such as Reliant or TXU, we’re the company that maintains it.”
CenterPoint Q&A
The Village of Sterling Ridge was without power for 13 days after Hurricane Ike struck. The following is a series of questions from village residents on CenterPoint with answers from The Community Associations of The Woodlands Sept. 26.
Q: Where does our power feed from? Where are our power lines?
A: CenterPoint power feeds from 2 primary distribution lines that serve the Village of Sterling Ridge. One line is on FM 2978, the other line enters The Woodlands from a line south of Section 49 (French Oaks). These lines are looped together in The Woodlands using overhead and underground lines.
Q: Do we know the condition of those lines?
A: Many have been felled by trees and are scheduled for restoration.
Q: Why are we with CenterPoint while the majority of The Woodlands is with Entergy?
A: The service areas of electric utilities is determined by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. The chairman of the commission is Barry T. Smitherman, telephone 512.936.7025, e-mail barry.smitherman@puc.state.tx.us. Efforts had been made to swap CenterPoint territories with Entergy territories when the area was being developed so that all areas of The Woodlands would be in Entergy’s area, but the two companies could not reach agreement.
Q: Is our power provided through above-ground distribution or underground distribution?
A: Both. Portions of the distribution lines described above are underground and portions are overhead. All the houses and businesses in The Woodlands CenterPoint service area are connected to these distribution lines via additional distribution systems that are entirely underground. It should be noted that in addition to transmission lines that are overhead, Entergy also has some distribution lines serving The Woodlands that are overhead.
Q: Does CenterPoint know we even exist? Why is their information on the website so inaccurate?
A: Your elected state legislators and The Woodlands Association have made it a point to communicate with CenterPoint that your part of The Woodlands is without power. They certainly are aware of your situation. Your community leaders have been forceful in letting CenterPoint know that the information on their website is inaccurate and have asked them to correct their database.
Q: How do we ensure the next hurricane doesn’t leave us in the dark for weeks as the majority of The Woodlands returns to “normalcy?”
A: After CenterPoint has returned to a normal business schedule, community leaders and engineers intend to meet with CenterPoint to see what remediation options are available so as to avoid a recurrence of this unfortunate situation that you are currently experiencing.
Q: What is being done to ensure the safety of our neighborhoods while we wait for power restoration?
A: In addition to the regular Sheriff’s patrol, an additional daytime patrol has been put in place effective today, and law enforcement patrols have been doubled for the nighttime hours for the duration of the power outage, beginning today.
Source: The Community Associations of The Woodlands
The company provides power to 100,122 customers in Montgomery County, exclusively along the southern region. The compnay serves Spring, Fox Run, Imperial Oaks, Sterling Ridge and Creekside Park residents.
CenterPoint officials are scheduled to appear at a moderated forum from 7-9 p.m. at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott, located at Six Pines Drive and Lake Robbins Drive.
Despite hundreds of angry calls from powerless residents to The Woodlands Association President Joel Deretchin, state Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, and CenterPoint, the energy company maintains that its response to the storm was satisfactory.
“I’m sure people want to share their feelings and have an opportunity to vent,” said Leticia Lowe, CenterPoint spokeswoman. “But we had a good plan and we executed our plan. Before the storm, we advised customers to be prepared to be without power at least two weeks, if not longer, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Lowe said officials are planning to show photos of some of the damage to the company’s lines and discuss their systematic method for restoring power at the forum.
The company revised that method, when necessary, growing its tree trimmer and linemen staff from about 7,000 to more than 11,000 workers and increasing its staging areas from four to 11, she said.
However, the experience did give the company a chance to learn and improve, Lowe said.
The company is working on a formal review of the storm response and will apply new procedures where applicable.
“With every new experience, you learn from it,” she said.
Lowe couldn’t say what percentage of county residents were without power for more than a week, or exactly how many are still without power, saying there are only a few isolated pockets throughout the greater Houston area.
Workers started attempting to restore area substations immediately after the storm hit, she said.
Some were powered up completely the day of the storm, while others were not restored until Sept. 15 or later.
One station was not fully restored until Sept. 28, Lowe said.
In one case, advanced technology turned out to be more of an obstacle than a lifesaver for the company’s communication.
Out-of-state workers not trained on CenterPoint’s communication system couldn’t transmit information easily. In some cases, information had to be manually submitted, which slowed the company’s reporting to its customers.
“While we were prepared, we hadn’t had a hurricane in this area for 25 years,” Lowe said.
Many CenterPoint customers in the county were particularly embittered because the majority of the county is served by Entergy, which had power restored quicker than CenterPoint. In some cases, residents could look across the street at homes that had power while they were still in the dark.
However, residents can’t simply switch from one company to another to avoid long outages in the future.
In the majority of Montgomery County, Entergy is both the company that sells and maintains power. But along the southern region, CenterPoint is the company that maintains poles, wires and infrastructure, Lowe said.
“No matter who they buy power from, such as Reliant or TXU, we’re the company that maintains it.”
CenterPoint Q&A
The Village of Sterling Ridge was without power for 13 days after Hurricane Ike struck. The following is a series of questions from village residents on CenterPoint with answers from The Community Associations of The Woodlands Sept. 26.
Q: Where does our power feed from? Where are our power lines?
A: CenterPoint power feeds from 2 primary distribution lines that serve the Village of Sterling Ridge. One line is on FM 2978, the other line enters The Woodlands from a line south of Section 49 (French Oaks). These lines are looped together in The Woodlands using overhead and underground lines.
Q: Do we know the condition of those lines?
A: Many have been felled by trees and are scheduled for restoration.
Q: Why are we with CenterPoint while the majority of The Woodlands is with Entergy?
A: The service areas of electric utilities is determined by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. The chairman of the commission is Barry T. Smitherman, telephone 512.936.7025, e-mail barry.smitherman@puc.state.tx.us. Efforts had been made to swap CenterPoint territories with Entergy territories when the area was being developed so that all areas of The Woodlands would be in Entergy’s area, but the two companies could not reach agreement.
Q: Is our power provided through above-ground distribution or underground distribution?
A: Both. Portions of the distribution lines described above are underground and portions are overhead. All the houses and businesses in The Woodlands CenterPoint service area are connected to these distribution lines via additional distribution systems that are entirely underground. It should be noted that in addition to transmission lines that are overhead, Entergy also has some distribution lines serving The Woodlands that are overhead.
Q: Does CenterPoint know we even exist? Why is their information on the website so inaccurate?
A: Your elected state legislators and The Woodlands Association have made it a point to communicate with CenterPoint that your part of The Woodlands is without power. They certainly are aware of your situation. Your community leaders have been forceful in letting CenterPoint know that the information on their website is inaccurate and have asked them to correct their database.
Q: How do we ensure the next hurricane doesn’t leave us in the dark for weeks as the majority of The Woodlands returns to “normalcy?”
A: After CenterPoint has returned to a normal business schedule, community leaders and engineers intend to meet with CenterPoint to see what remediation options are available so as to avoid a recurrence of this unfortunate situation that you are currently experiencing.
Q: What is being done to ensure the safety of our neighborhoods while we wait for power restoration?
A: In addition to the regular Sheriff’s patrol, an additional daytime patrol has been put in place effective today, and law enforcement patrols have been doubled for the nighttime hours for the duration of the power outage, beginning today.
Source: The Community Associations of The Woodlands
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kyhooya wrote on Oct 15, 2008 8:08 AM: