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  1. Home
  2. About Us: Company Overview
  3. Company History
  1. Company Overview

​​Company History

​ Company Timeline

​

With more than 14,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 140 years.​

​1866​​

​Houston Gas Lig​ht Company was organized to supply gas made from oyster shells and coal for the street lights in a co​​astal village in southeast Texas.

​1870

​The city of Minneapolis granted the newly formed Minneapolis Gas Light Co. a franchise to provide gas service with gas manufactured from coal or oil at a plant along the Mississippi River.

​1882

​Houston Electric Light & Power filed a charter and was granted a franchise by the Houston City Council. Over the next century, HL&P generated​ electricity from steam, natural gas, coal or lignite and finally nuclear fission for sale and delivery to retail customers in the rapidly growing greater Houston area.​

​1905

​An organization of businessmen was granted the first franchise for distribution of natural gas in Shreveport, La.

​1990

​These three businesses merged to form a company that became NorAm Energy Corp.

​1995

​NorAm Energy Services began marketing wholesale electric power nationwide. NorAm Energy Management was established for retail energy marketing and NorAm gas gathering assets were unbundled and transferred to NorAm Field Services.

​1997

​NorAm merged with Houston Industries, Inc., the parent company of HL&P to become one of the United States' largest integrated energy companies.

​1999

​The company was named Reliant Energy, Inc.

​2002

​With the restructuring of the electric market in Texas, the company spun off its retail electric as Reliant Resources. Within two years, the company would also sell its electric generation assets. The remaining mostly regulated energy delivery company adopted the name CenterPoint Energy to reflect our role in the center of the energy value chain and the center of our customers' lives.

​2013

​On March 14, CenterPoint Energy announced it was teaming up with ArcLight Capital Partners LLC and Oklahoma City-based OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE: OGE) in an $11 billion deal to create one of the largest master limited partnerships in the U.S. The joint venture includes OGE Energy and ArcLight's midstream transportation, gathering and processing business, Enogex LLC, and all of CenterPoint Energy's interstate pipelines and field service businesses. ArcLight Capital Partners is a Boston-based energy investment firm. 

On May 1, CenterPoint Energy combined its interstate pipeline and field services businesses with the midstream operations of OGE Energy and ArcLight Capital to create a new master limited partnership: Enable Midstream Partners.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

​2018

​On April 23, CenterPoint Energy and Vectren Corporation entered into a definitive merger agreement to form a leading energy delivery, infrastructure and services company.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

​2019

​In February, Vectren Energy becomes a subsidiary of CenterPoint Energy and the combined company serves more than 7 million metered customers across the U.S. and employs approximately 14,000.

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