CenterPoint Energy Foundation announces $1.5 million COVID-19 Relief Fund
Contributions to support those impacted by coronavirus
2020-04-06T05:00:00Z

Houston – April 6, 2020 – CenterPoint Energy today announced through its foundation the company will contribute $1.5 million to nonprofit organizations, agencies and causes that are committed to supporting those who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. CenterPoint Energy's COVID-19 Relief Fund will include $1 million in direct contributions, as well as up to $500,000 in matching gifts for employees' contributions to qualifying 501(c)3 organizations.

"During this challenging time, the safety and well-being of CenterPoint Energy's customers, employees, contractors and communities we serve remain a top priority," said John W. Somerhalder II, interim president and chief executive officer of CenterPoint Energy. "We hope to assist the most vulnerable of our population who are experiencing significant challenges resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. Through the CenterPoint Energy Foundation's contributions to local nonprofit organizations, we will strive to make a positive difference in the communities where we live and work."

Qualifying nonprofit organizations in CenterPoint Energy's utility footprint of Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas will be eligible to receive grants. Organizations that are interested in applying for a CenterPoint Energy COVID-19 Relief Fund grant should visit www.centerpointenergy.com/cnpgives.

CenterPoint Energy continues to provide additional support to customers regarding their utility service. As previously announced, the company will support customers who may need payment assistance, arrangements or extensions during the COVID-19 crisis. In addition, the company has temporarily suspended natural gas service disconnections for nonpayment. For customers in southwest Indiana, this includes the temporary suspension of electric service disconnections.

Additional information about CenterPoint Energy's COVID-19 response can be found at centerpointenergy.com.

 

 Recent News

 

 

CenterPoint Energy encourages Minnesota customers to take action to save energy during the extreme cold snap

Minneapolis – Feb. 16, 2025 – The bitter cold across Minnesota that is expected to continue throughout the week may cause customers to use more energy to keep their homes at a comfortable temperature. CenterPoint Energy is encouraging its Minnesota customers to take small and easy actions to save energy including temporarily lowering their thermostat settings, health permitting, to help reduce energy use and save money.

CenterPoint wants to remind customers it has a cold weather action plan in place that aims to provide safe, reliable and resilient energy. The company urges customers to also have a cold weather plan in place to stay safe and warm.

“Our employees work around-the-clock to provide safe, reliable and resilient energy service to our customers in Minnesota and are positioned throughout our service area to respond to potential needs. While our workers will be focused on delivering energy to our customers, we know that customers may want to find out more about ways to manage energy more efficiently. We encourage our customers to take easy steps to help reduce their energy use and save money even as the temperatures start to drop, while keeping their loved ones safe and warm," said Brad Steber, CenterPoint's Vice President of Minnesota Gas.

Quick and Easy Tips to Save Energy and Money
CenterPoint encourages customers to follow these easy tips that can make a difference on monthly heating bills:

  • Turn down the thermostat. Lowering the thermostat by 7-10 degrees at night, or when away for at least eight hours, can potentially save 10% on heating costs. With a programmable thermostat, a heating system can work around a customer's schedule.  
  • Check the furnace filter. Change or clean the filter to maximize the efficiency of the furnace.
  • Use window coverings and blinds effectively. If it's sunny outside, open window coverings during the day to capture warmth from the sun, and close coverings at night to keep warmth inside. If the sun's not shining, keep window coverings closed to hold warmth inside. 
  • Keep warm air in and cold air out of the home. Use caulk or weather-stripping to seal leaks around doors, windows and other openings such as pipes or ducts. Close fireplace dampers when not in use to prevent heat loss.
     
  • Lower the temperature setting on the water heater by 10 degrees. Limit hot water use.

CenterPoint also wants to provide a safety reminder to customers on actions to take if they suspect a natural gas leak. If there's a “rotten egg" odor of natural gas present, immediately leave the area on foot, go to a safe location, and call both 911 and CenterPoint at 800-296-9815. Don't use electric switches/outlets, phones (including cell phones), drive or start a car inside or close to the location or do anything that could cause a spark.

Winter Energy Guide
CenterPoint recently launched its Winter Energy Guide, a comprehensive online resource hub that helps customers throughout the winter heating season. The guide features practical and important safety, energy savings and bill management tips to help customers stay safe and warm throughout the winter season. CenterPoint has a cold weather plan in place to respond quickly to potential impacts this winter, and the company encourages customers to use this helpful resource to create their own cold weather plans so that they're prepared for the colder weather ahead. Learn more at CenterPointEnergy.com/ReadyforWinter.

CenterPoint Energy is Minnesota's largest natural gas utility, serving the energy needs of more than 920,000 residential and business customers.

With an extended bitter cold deep freeze of below zero temperatures and windy conditions expected across Minnesota, CenterPoint Energy provides vital tips to help customers stay safe and warm

Minneapolis – Feb. 14, 2025 – Starting as early as this weekend and throughout next week, bitter cold is expected in Minnesota with temperatures that could be experienced around -20 degrees and a possibility of “feels like" temperatures as low as –40 degrees. CenterPoint wants to remind customers it has a cold weather action plan in place and urges customers to also have a cold weather plan in place to stay safe and warm.

Natural gas preparedness actions in Minnesota
CenterPoint prepares year-round for cold weather in Minnesota through proactive actions that aim to provide safe, reliable and resilient energy service. The company's efforts include:

  • Monitoring the natural gas system 24/7 and implementing cold weather action plans to support delivery of service.
  • Conducting infrastructure projects to modernize the company's natural gas distribution system.
  • Leveraging natural gas, propane and/or liquefied natural gas stored ahead of the winter heating season that can be used to increase the available supply within the system to support customer needs.
  • Staging staff across the company's service area that is ready to respond to potential service issues safely and as quickly as possible.

Payment Assistance Resources Are Available for Customers
Colder weather may require customers to use more energy to maintain a comfortable temperature inside their homes. That's why CenterPoint offers programs, tools and tips to help customers manage their bills and save energy. The company encourages those facing hardship to call CenterPoint to find out about payment arrangements and be referred to resources that may be available. To learn more, customers should call 800-245-2377 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday-Friday, or visit CenterPointEnergy.com/PaymentAssistance.

Energy-saving Tips
CenterPoint encourages customers to consider implementing easy tips that can help make a big difference on a monthly heating bill including:

  • Make sure the heating system is operating safely and efficiently. Change or clean the furnace filter regularly to help maximize the furnace's efficiency and life.
  • Turn down the thermostat. Lowering the thermostat by 7-10 degrees at night or when away for at least eight hours can potentially save 10% on heating costs. With a programmable thermostat, a heating system can work around a customer's schedule.  
  • Keep warm air in and cold air out of the home. Use caulk or weather-stripping to seal leaks around doors, windows and other openings such as pipes or ducts. Towels can also be rolled up and pushed against the bottom of a door's interior. Close fireplace dampers when not in use to prevent heat loss.
  • Use window coverings and blinds effectively. If it's sunny outside, open window coverings during the day to capture warmth from the sun, and close coverings at night to keep warmth inside.
  • Circulate warm air with ceiling fans. Set ceiling fans to turn clockwise and slowly to move warm air from the ceiling to living levels.

 
Safety Tips
CenterPoint encourages customers to keep safety at the forefront of their minds as they heat their homes:

  • Use space heaters safely. Make sure a space heater has an automatic shut-off, and keep children, pets and all items at least three feet away from it. A space heater that uses natural gas, propane or wood should be vented to the outside. Stoves and ovens should never be used for space heating.​
  • Test carbon monoxide (CO) and smoke alarms to make sure they work properly. Change batteries regularly. Alarms don't last forever, so replace them according to the manufacturer's instructions. 
  • Know the signs of CO poisoning. Early symptoms such as headache and fatigue are similar to the flu, but without a fever. Continued CO exposure can lead to more severe headaches, dizziness, nausea, difficulty thinking clearly and fainting. If everyone in a household is experiencing these symptoms, it could be CO poisoning. If CO poisoning is suspected, leave the area immediately, get fresh air and call 911.
  • Immediately report a suspected natural gas leak. If there's a “rotten egg" odor of natural gas present, immediately leave on foot, go to a safe location and call both 911 and CenterPoint Energy at 800-296-9815. Don't use electric switches and outlets, phones (including cell phones), drive or start a car inside or close to the location or do anything that could cause a spark.

CenterPoint is Minnesota's largest natural gas utility, serving the energy needs of more than 920,000 residential and business customers.

CenterPoint Energy reminds customers to celebrate Valentine’s Day by keeping love in the air and balloons inside and away from power lines

Houston – Feb. 13, 2025 – As Valentine's Day approaches, CenterPoint Energy urges customers to keep themselves and their loved ones safe from the potential hazards of helium balloons impacting power lines or other electric infrastructure. Valentine's Day is great for love in the air, not metallic balloons tangled in power lines causing power outages.

“Balloons can be a thoughtful and romantic way to show someone your love, but if left unattended and not weighed down they can also become dangerous quickly if you aren't careful. Helium balloons, especially those metallic ones, can cause sparks, outages or power interruptions if they come into contact with or get tangled in power lines or other electric utility equipment. Stay safe this Valentine's Day and help prevent potential outages for you and your neighbors by keeping balloons tied down and away from electric utility equipment," said Al Payton, CenterPoint Energy Vice President of Safety and Technical Training.

Balloon safety tips from CenterPoint
Customers can follow these tips to stay safe on Valentine's Day and any time they purchase balloons for a celebration:

  • Fly balloons indoors and keep them away from all entrances and exits to prevent them from escaping outside.
  • If the balloon comes with a weight, keep it on. If it doesn't, consider tethering it with a weight. 
  • Dispose of balloons properly after use by puncturing and deflating them.
  • Never tie a helium balloon to a child or anyone else – they might inadvertently cause the balloon to contact a power line or electric utility equipment if they go outside.
  • Never attempt to retrieve balloons caught in a power line or electric utility equipment. Call 911 and CenterPoint at 713-207-2222 to report the issue and the company will send a trained service technician to address it safely and as quickly as possible.

​For more electric safety tips, customers can visit CenterPointEnergy.com/ElectricSafety.​​​

Important ways to stay connected to CenterPoint  
Customers can enroll in the company's Power Alert Service® to receive outage details, estimated restoration times and customer-specific restoration updates via phone call, email or text. Customers can also stay up to date with CenterPoint's new and improved, cloud-based Outage Tracker, available in English and Spanish, which allows customers to see outages by county, city and zip code. ​


In celebration of Career and Technical Education Month this February, CenterPoint’s Energy Safe Skills program readies future workforce for safety and career opportunities

Minneapolis – Feb. 13, 2025 – Each year in February, Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month is celebrated to spotlight CTE programs and the value of these programs for students of all ages. To celebrate CTE Month, CenterPoint Energy is highlighting its years-long Energy Safe Skills program with the National Energy Foundation (NEF), which is an energy safety online education program for secondary, vocational and college students available in Indiana and Minnesota.

The goal of this program is to provide safe digging education to those individuals who are pursuing careers in the utility, construction, engineering and maintenance industries, along with sharing critical information on natural gas safety. Through the program, students gain real-world insight into how to safely design, plan and work around buried utilities to help them stay safe and to prepare them for their future careers.

“At CenterPoint, safety is our most important core value, and we're pleased to be able to share safe practices that prepare our next generation in Indiana and Minnesota for careers in the utility, construction, engineering and maintenance industries," said Al Payton, CenterPoint's Vice President of Safety and Technical Training. “Through the Energy Safe Skills Program, we can create a safer tomorrow and highlight the value of safety in all activities that are completed – both at work and at home."

Available at no cost, this training includes either guided or on-demand lessons and supplementary STEM-based (science-technology-engineering-mathematics) activities that can be completed within one or two classroom sessions and incorporated into existing lessons. The curriculum covers characteristics of natural gas, natural gas leak recognition and response, the importance of contacting 811 prior to digging to have underground utilities located and best practices for safe digging.

“The biggest benefit of this program for teachers is that the interactive presentation and quiz are self-guided, which makes it easy to incorporate into a lesson plan regardless of the instructor's previous experience with the topics," said Kelly Flowers, Senior Program Director at NEF. “We have designed this training so the instructors can simply play the self-guided training for their students, or they can be more active in leading the discussion."

Instructors who use this program may be eligible for grants to help fund safety equipment and other instructional materials and supplies for their classrooms.

For more information and to learn about how to incorporate the Energy Safe Skills program into educational curriculum, visit EnergySafeSkills.org.

About CenterPoint Energy

As the only investor-owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas. With approximately 9,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com.  

About the National Energy Foundation

The National Energy Foundation (NEF) is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing energy literacy through the development, distribution and implementation of educational programs and materials. These resources relate primarily to energy, natural resources, energy efficiency and energy safety. Information about NEF is available at nef1.org.

For further information about the National Energy Foundation, members of the media may contact:

Kelly Flowers, National Energy Foundation, 801-327-9500 ext.118. 


Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative Phase Two Update: CenterPoint Energy continues delivering progress by deploying 750 automated reliability devices in January and progressing toward goal of 4,500 by June 1, 2025

 Houston – Feb. 12, 2025 – Today, as part of the second phase of its Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI), CenterPoint Energy shared its latest monthly progress update with new action milestones including the installation of more than 750 automated reliability devices, which will reduce both sustained interruptions and restoration times in storm events.​

This new deployment of automated reliability technology began in January. The company plans to install 4,500 of these devices across the Greater Houston area by June 1, 2025, which are capable of “self-healing" when outages occur which will helps minimize impact to customers during storm events.

Since the launch of GHRI Phase Two five months ago, and in preparation for the 2025 hurricane season, CenterPoint continues to make good progress on the suite of additional resiliency actions, including new pole installations and replacements, as well as trimming thousands of miles of higher-risk vegetation in recent months. The latest program updates are available at CenterPointEnergy.com/TakingAction.

In addition to the 750 automated reliability devices, in the last four weeks alone, CenterPoint has:

  • Installed an additional approximately 1,800 more storm-resilient poles,
  • Completed the clearance of approximately 400 more miles of power lines with high-risk vegetation,
  • Undergrounded 40 more miles of power lines to reduce the impact of extreme weather, and
  • Installed an additional 13 Intelligent Grid Switching Devices to minimize the impact of outages and help improve overall restoration times.

 
When completed, the resiliency actions outlined in GHRI Phase Two are expected to lead to more than 125 million fewer outage minutes annually for customers.

“The many critical resiliency actions we are taking all across the Greater Houston area reflect CenterPoint's commitment to better positioning our customers and our communities to withstand ​

the next major storm or hurricane. From installing thousands of poles and hundreds of automated reliability devices to undergrounding more power lines and trimming more hazardous areas of vegetation around our lines, our teams continue working toward our goal of building the most resilient coastal grid in the country and providing the more reliable day-to-day service that our customers expect and deserve," said Darin Carroll, Senior Vice President of CenterPoint's Electric Business.

GHRI Phase Two: Significant progress to date
On September 30, CenterPoint announced the launch of Phase Two of the GHRI, which included a series of actions to strengthen resiliency, enable a self-healing system and reduce the duration and impact of power outages. Through early February, the company has made significant advances across its Greater Houston service area, including:  ​​​​​

# 

GHRI Phase Two: More weather monitoring stations coming soon
CenterPoint teams will be taking additional actions as part of the second phase of GHRI, which runs through May 31, 2025, including establishing a network of 100 new weather monitoring stations. These improvements are on track to begin early this year and are expected to be completed before the start of the 2025 hurricane season.

The company is also working to expand and improve the way it communicates with customers and engages with communities before, during and after emergencies, including through a year-round safety and preparedness campaign. CenterPoint representatives will continue to be in the community in the months leading up to hurricane season to share information on its preparedness efforts as well as preparedness tips and resources for its customers.

CenterPoint will continue to provide updates on its progress toward completing its critical resiliency actions and other GHRI commitments. More information and real-time updates are available at CenterPointEnergy.com/TakingAction.

About CenterPoint Energy, Inc. 
As the only investor-owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas. With approximately 9,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com. 
 
Forward-looking Statements
This news release, as well as the website pages related to the GHRI, includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this news release or the website pages related to the GHRI, the words "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "goal," "intend," "may," "objective," "plan," "potential," "predict," "projection," "should," "target," "will" or other similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, which include statements regarding our resiliency investments, and the GHRI, including effectiveness, timing and related matters, are based upon assumptions of management which are believed to be reasonable at the time made and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Any statements in this news release or the website pages related to the GHRI regarding future events that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement contained in this news release, or the website pages related to the GHRI speaks only as of the date of this release. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the provided forward-looking information include risks and uncertainties relating to: (1) the impact of pandemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) financial market conditions; (3) general economic conditions; (4) the timing and impact of future regulatory and legislative decisions; and (5) other factors, risks and uncertainties discussed in CenterPoint Energy's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 and CenterPoint's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2024June 30, 2024 and September 30, 2024 and other reports CenterPoint Energy or its subsidiaries may file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. ​​