Update: Statewide power generation emergency expected to extend outages for CenterPoint Energy customers
2021-02-16T06:00:00Z

​Houston – Feb. 16, 2021 – The Texas electric system continues to face an unprecedented power shortage due to extreme winter weather. Because the state's current power generation has fallen short of demand, significant electricity outages have resulted across Texas and are lasting longer than previously planned. CenterPoint Energy is required to comply with ERCOT's directive to suspend electric service to a portion of its customers. The company does not generate electricity itself, so the current shortage of power capacity from the grid is not something that CenterPoint Energy directly controls.

Due to the continued issues with power generators' ability to produce electricity, CenterPoint Energy's customers need to be prepared to be without power, potentially for the duration of the generation shortage event, which could last several more days.  

CenterPoint Energy continues to navigate this historic weather event to provide for the stabilization of its electric delivery system and the reliability of its natural gas infrastructure. The company's transmission and distribution systems handled the severe weather well, and CenterPoint Energy is prepared to serve its customers when generating capacity from third-party generators is available.

As an electric transmission and delivery company serving the Greater Houston area, CenterPoint Energy depends on electricity that is provided by third-party electricity generators and received through the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which is responsible for managing and scheduling power on the electric grid in Texas.

"We are ready to restore power as soon as it is available to be delivered; however, there is not enough electricity from third-party generators," said Dave Lesar, President and CEO, CenterPoint Energy. "CenterPoint Energy continues to communicate with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and other stakeholders on the power shortage, but we have no control over the generators' ability to provide power, nor are we able to predict when they will resume their generation. As soon as power is delivered to us, we will be ready to begin to deliver that power to our customers."

CenterPoint Energy understands the significant challenges facing customers who have lost power and appreciates their patience as the company continues to follow ERCOT's directive to implement controlled outages to help reach a balance between power supply and demand in the state.

CenterPoint Energy's Executive Vice President, Electric Utility, Kenny Mercado added, "Given uncertain timing and the ongoing public safety risks due to the severe weather conditions in Houston and surrounding areas, CenterPoint Energy advises all of its electric customers to be prepared to be without power, potentially for the duration of the generation shortage event, which could last several more days. We encourage all our customers to take precautions for their personal safety."

CenterPoint Energy will continue to update customers through local media outlets, its website (centerpointenergy.com) and its social media channels, Twitter (@CNPalerts) and Facebook.

CenterPoint Energy is providing this update as of Tuesday morning:

Electric Operations

  • As of 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 16 the estimated number of Houston area customers without power is 1.27 million.
     
  • Overnight, CenterPoint Energy was able to restart the process of rotating outages. Unfortunately, this process had to be halted due to another ERCOT order to reduce electric delivery, as seven third-party electricity generators in CenterPoint Energy's region went offline.
  • CenterPoint Energy crews conducted an assessment of the Houston Electric transmission system on Monday and determined that there is no damage.
     
  • CenterPoint Energy is continuously evaluating its system and performing any needed repairs to be ready to restore service to customers as soon as additional power is available from the grid.
  • If additional generating capacity goes offline, it would negatively impact the electric system, resulting in additional customer outages.
     
  • To assist with this situation and limit outages, customers who do have power are asked to reduce their electricity use to the lowest level possible.

Electric Safety

  • CenterPoint Energy takes the safety and security concerns of its customers very seriously. Unfortunately, from time to time, people attempt to impersonate utility company employees in order to gain access to someone's home.
  • All CenterPoint Energy employees and contractors carry identification badges. If the badges are not visible, they will show them upon request.
  • Customers should know the following:
    • All CenterPoint Energy vehicles are marked with the CenterPoint Energy logo.  
    • All vehicles being used by CenterPoint Energy contractors are marked with the CenterPoint Energy logo.
    • All CenterPoint Energy employees and contractors carry identification badges. If the badges are not visible, they will show them upon request.
    • If a customer has any doubts whether someone is a CenterPoint Energy employee, they should ask to see their ID badge.
    • If there is a still doubt or any other issue, even after seeing an ID badge, customers should call local law enforcement.

    • In most cases, it is NOT necessary for CenterPoint Energy employees to enter a customer's home or apartment, since most work is done outside on power and natural gas lines. However, when restoring natural gas service, it IS necessary for CenterPoint Energy's natural gas employees to enter a home or business to relight pilots and ensure that it is safe to resume natural gas service.

Natural Gas Operations    
  • CenterPoint Energy teams are in ongoing communications with upstream natural gas suppliers to coordinate and maintain reliability across the company's eight-state service territory.
  • When and where required, CenterPoint Energy has deployed additional staff to respond to system and customer needs.
  • During this extreme weather event, the company has delivered a record volume of natural gas to its customers.
  • To prevent service interruptions, the company Mobile Energy Solutions business currently has 19 temporary gas installations deployed in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas, with additional equipment as needed.
  • In response to high heating demand as a result of the extremely cold temperatures, CenterPoint customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas are asked to temporarily lower their thermostat settings to help conserve natural gas.

Natural Gas Safety Tips

  • Make sure your heating system is working properly. Malfunctioning home heating equipment can cause a fire or carbon monoxide poisoning. Check that outside furnace vents aren't blocked by snow or ice. Keep your furnace filter clean for safe, efficient operation.
  • Use space heaters safely. Use a space heater with an automatic shut-off, and keep children, pets and all items at least three feet away. A space heater that uses gas, propane or wood should be vented to the outside. Stoves and ovens should never be used for space heating.
  • Keep generators positioned outside and at least 15 feet away from open windows so exhaust does not enter your home/business or a neighboring home/business.
  • Check your carbon monoxide (CO) and smoke alarms. These devices are essential to warn you of a fire or dangerous malfunction with a furnace, water heater, fireplace or stove. Test your alarms monthly and change batteries every year.
  • Immediately report a suspected gas leak. If you smell the "rotten egg" odor of natural gas, immediately leave on foot, go to a safe location and call both 911 and CenterPoint Energy. Don't use electric switches, phones (including cell phones), drive or start a car, or do anything that could cause a spark.

 

 Recent News

 

 
CenterPoint Energy Readies Electric and Gas Systems for FIFA World Cup

​Nearly 700 electric projects completed and nearly 250 miles of natural gas pipeline inspected around critical event venues ahead of seven World Cup matches in Houston

Heightened readiness and close coordination efforts with City of Houston, FIFA Host Committee, and emergency management agencies to continue from June 11 through July 4

HOUSTON – June 9, 2026 – As the city of Houston prepares to welcome fans from around the world for the FIFA World Cup 2026™, CenterPoint Energy has spent the past year executing a series of targeted actions to strengthen its overall preparedness and readiness efforts for this historic global sporting event. To date, CenterPoint has completed nearly 700 electric resiliency projects spanning over 100 miles of electric lines, which included repairing or replacing equipment on all circuits providing power to World Cup priority locations like key venues, transit corridors, hotels, airports and others across Greater Houston. In addition, CenterPoint has completed inspections on nearly 250 miles of natural gas pipeline surrounding key venues.

With seven World Cup matches scheduled in Houston between June 14 and July 4, CenterPoint will operate at a heightened readiness posture, which includes the activation of its Emergency Operations Center before, during and after each match. CenterPoint will continue to work closely with City of Houston officials and other local, state and federal agencies as part of a combined response effort. 

“Preparing for seven World Cup matches is like preparing for seven Super bowls. For over a year, our teams have worked to strengthen the electric and gas systems around all critical venues and to closely coordinate with all our emergency management partners to help prepare our great city. All of us at CenterPoint are proud to do our part to support this global event, and we are excited for our city and the world to enjoy this historic sporting event," said Jesus Soto, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, CenterPoint Energy.

World Cup Preparedness & Readiness Efforts: Key Actions

As part of its overall preparedness and readiness efforts for the nearly month-long World Cup schedule, in October 2025, CenterPoint began undertaking a series of actions to prepare the electric and natural gas systems to support the City of Houston and all critical event locations. Among the critical actions taken include:  ​

  • Completing Nearly 700 Reliability Projects: Completing nearly 700 electric system projects around critical event venues and other priority locations to help strengthen reliability.
  • Conducting Critical Grid Inspections: Inspecting primary and alternate circuits serving World Cup priority locations, with initial inspections beginning in July 2025 and follow-up inspections identifying issues for repair ahead of the event.
  • Completing Targeted Work at Key Locations: Focusing critical preparedness work around key World Cup-related locations, including NRG Park, Shell Energy Stadium, the EaDo Fan Festival area, airports, transit routes, hotels and training-related sites.
  • Inspecting Nearly 250 Miles of Natural Gas Pipeline: completed additional gas facilities surveys across 140 miles of gas main lines and more than 100 miles of service lines around key event venues.
  • Developing an Action Plan: Building an event-specific action plan to define staffing, response objectives, escalation criteria and resource coordination during the World Cup matches.
  • Coordinating with Local Emergency Partners: Coordinating with the City of Houston, emergency managers and external partners on planning, emergency response and operational readiness.
  • Participating in a Local Emergency Exercise: Participating in a World Cup tabletop exercise facilitated by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and hosted by the City of Houston to test coordination and response capabilities.
  • Pre-Staging Resources: Preparing additional operational support and response resources to be staged near priority areas to support faster restoration if issues occur.
  • Activating our Emergency Operations Center: CenterPoint will be activating its new state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Center in advance of and during each match to help prepare for and coordinate CenterPoint's event support.​

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, Minnesota, Ohio and Texas. As of March 31, 2026, the company owned approximately $47.8 billion in assets. With approximately 8,800 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com.  

CenterPoint Energy teams monitoring severe storms forecasted for southwestern Indiana and preparing for potential impacts

​The company is executing preparedness actions ahead of storms 

Customers encouraged to stay safe and prepare emergency plans 

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – June 8, 2026 – CenterPoint Energy is monitoring forecasts for potentially severe thunderstorms across the region and preparing for potential impacts as storms are expected to move through southwestern Indiana this week. According to the National Weather Service, strong, damaging winds are possible.

CenterPoint's preparedness actions include:

  • Monitoring weather forecasts and conditions
  • Preparing crews and equipment across its service territory
  • ​Coordinating with local government officials and other stakeholders on storm readiness
  • Sharing safety and preparedness information directly with customers

“Our Emergency Preparedness and Response team has been monitoring the potential for severe storms and our teams are fully prepared and stand ready to respond," said Mike Roeder, President of CenterPoint Energy Indiana. “We encourage our customers to stay alert in anticipation of changing weather conditions and take steps now to prepare."

CenterPoint encourages customers to prepare for severe weather:

CenterPoint Energy Announces “Hurricane Readiness Week” to Highlight Resiliency and Readiness Actions with Official Start of Hurricane Season


With National Weather Service forecasting 8 - 14 named storms this year, CenterPoint highlights Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI) improvements, enhanced weather monitoring and opening a new Emergency Operations Center to better prepare and ready its response for customers this hurricane season

CenterPoint encourages customers to sign up for its Power Alert Service® to receive real-time updates about their service throughout hurricane season

HOUSTON – June 2, 2026 – Today, with the start of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, CenterPoint is kicking off its “Hurricane Readiness Week," building on Governor Greg Abbott's proclamation last week recognizing May 25 - 30 as Hurricane Preparedness Week in Texas, and sharing a series of critical actions completed to date and underway to strengthen the energy system and keep customers informed.

This season, the National Weather Service predicts 8 to 14 named storms for the Atlantic basin, with 3 - 6 forecast to become hurricanes. To prepare, CenterPoint has prioritized critical resiliency and storm preparedness actions, and throughout the summer will continue to coordinate with local emergency officials and local stakeholders and help customers better prepare for potential severe weather by hosting community events across Greater Houston.

“Preparing for emergencies, like hurricanes, is a year-round priority for our 8,800-strong CenterPoint team. From leveraging state-of-the art weather models and our own network of weather stations, to enhancing how we stage personnel and resources, our teams are prepared with the advanced tools and technology needed to perform at our best for our customers. We're also making critical investments in Houston's energy grid to improve storm resiliency and prepare our crews to respond safely and efficiently when storms strike. Together with local emergency leaders, we stand ready to support our communities before, during and after any severe weather event," said Don Daigler, CenterPoint's Senior Vice President, Emergency Preparedness and Response.
Preparing for the 2026 Hurricane Season: Critical Actions
CenterPoint has taken a series of actions to prepare for the upcoming hurricane season, including:

  • Completing critical resiliency upgrades, including installing storm-resilient poles, clearing higher-risk vegetation and undergrounding power lines across the system to improve system reliability and preventing 150 million customer outage minutes by the end of 2026.
  • Introducing a new way for customers to track GHRI upgrades and enhancements through a new online Community Progress Tracker.
  • Opening a new Emergency Operations Center to support CenterPoint's year-round situational awareness and emergency response readiness and coordinate closely with emergency response partners, local and state officials, media and other key stakeholders.
  • Enhancing real-time weather monitoring with 150 new advanced weather stations and state-of-the art models to enhance storm prediction and preparedness.
  • Executing a full-scale emergency exercise to practice a cross-functional response to a simulated category 3 hurricane with more than 400 CenterPoint team members participating and approximately 100 state and local officials in attendance.​
  • Leveraging advanced technology including improved weather tracking, improved damage models and crew resource management to restore power for customers more efficiently following a storm.
  • Completing more than 25,000 hours of FEMA trainings across more than 800 employees.
  • Improving the damage assessment and restoration process to support faster damage identification and power restoration.
  • Leveraging mutual assistance and vendor partnerships to expand our frontline workforce, when necessary, by up to 20 times to support our future storm or emergency response.

Keeping Customers Informed
During its Hurricane Readiness Week and throughout the 2026 hurricane season, CenterPoint will share updates and resources to help customers stay informed and prepare via social media, advertisements, direct-to-customer emails and through a series of community hurricane preparedness events. Important preparedness and safety information will also be shared before, during and after any major storm or hurricane.

As part of its hurricane preparedness campaign, CenterPoint encourages its customers to enroll in Power Alert Service® (PAS) to receive outage details, estimated restoration times and customer-specific restoration updates via free texts, phone calls or emails. For example, during the storm period from May 21 to May 27, CenterPoint sent more than 1,383,987 PAS alerts to customers with restoration information to keep them informed in real-time. PAS is critical to provide updates to customers, as well as family and friends. 90% of CenterPoint's customers are enrolled in PAS, and utilizing a variety of communication tools, CenterPoint will be encouraging all unsubscribed customers to sign up to ensure they receive timely updates. Customers can visit CenterPointEnergy.com/PowerAlertService to sign up and learn more.
 
During emergencies, CenterPoint's Outage Tracker provides customers with outage information and the estimated time of restoration by address, via an interactive map. Customers can also report an outage or hazard with a few simple clicks and is available at CenterPointEnergy.com/OutageTracker.

To help its Critical Care customers prepare, regardless of the weather, CenterPoint performs regular outreach, including phone calls, texts, emails and direct mail, throughout hurricane season. Customers can visit CenterPointEnergy.com/CriticalCare to register or learn more.

For more about CenterPoint's preparedness actions and critical resiliency improvements across Greater Houston, visit: CenterPointEnergy.com/TakingAction.

For b-roll of CenterPoint's full-scale emergency exercise in preparation for the 2026 hurricane season, undergrounding efforts, pole replacements and other resiliency work, click HERE.

CenterPoint Energy Advances Extreme Weather Preparedness and Response Efforts with Integrated, AI‑Driven Planning Platform from Technosylva

HOUSTON – June 1, 2026 – As extreme weather events grow more frequent and complex, CenterPoint Energy is continuing to strengthen how it plans, prepares for and responds to severe weather across its electric and gas service territory in Texas, Indiana, Ohio, and Minnesota, where the company serves approximately 7 million metered customers.

To support faster service restoration for customers following storms, CenterPoint is leveraging a new, integrated planning and operations platform developed in collaboration with Technosylva to deliver better outcomes for its customers and communities. Technosylva is a leading provider of wildfire, flooding, and extreme weather modeling and decision‑support software used by utilities, insurers, and public agencies to better anticipate risk and support operational response.

The platform brings together outage forecasting, high‑wind and winter storm modeling, flood risk insights, and wildfire intelligence into a single, system‑wide view. This integrated approach allows CenterPoint teams to monitor evolving conditions days in advance, align the right crews and resources ahead of impact, and improve restoration planning and response - while keeping customer safety at the forefront and helping reduce outage duration and restoration costs.

“Preparing for extreme weather today requires earlier insight and better coordination than ever before," said Jason Wells, Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer of CenterPoint Energy. “Our goal is to build the most resilient coastal grid in the nation to benefit our customers and communities. Technosylva's product gives us much clearer visibility into where impacts are most likely and allows us to mobilize crews more efficiently, support neighboring utilities when possible, and restore service faster for our customers."

CenterPoint's electric and natural gas systems are exposed to a wide range of weather‑related threats, including hurricanes, flooding, high winds, extreme heat and cold, and winter storms. The platform supports the company's long‑term strategy to strengthen grid resilience, improve operational readiness, and better prepare for increasingly complex weather events, all while reinforcing CenterPoint's continued commitment to its customers who depend on safe, reliable electric and natural gas service.

During recent weather events, CenterPoint teams used the platform's multi‑day outage forecasts and storm impact modeling to assess potential system impacts ahead of time, set appropriate emergency response levels, and pre‑position crews. In high‑wind events, outage forecasts closely aligned with actual system impacts, helping teams translate weather data into actionable response plans with greater confidence.

"CenterPoint Energy's leadership is visionary, investing to get ahead of extreme weather risk, not just to respond to it," said Bryan Spear, CEO of Technosylva. "Serving customers and communities who face the full spectrum of extreme weather, this enhanced risk intelligence platform helps CenterPoint to anticipate and prepare for events, including hurricanes, flooding, severe winds, and wildfire. We are grateful to them for their collaboration in developing our AI-powered platform, which delivers outage forecasting, restoration planning, flood insights, and wildfire intelligence, to help keep the lights on and restore power faster when it matters most."

Beyond immediate storm response, the platform also supports longer‑term planning by improving how flood and extreme weather risk are incorporated into infrastructure and capital investment decisions. As weather patterns evolve and infrastructure ages, asset‑level risk visibility is increasingly important for investments to deliver resilience benefits for customers over time.

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, Minnesota, Ohio and Texas. As of March 31, 2026, the company owned approximately $47.8 billion in assets. With approximately 8,800 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years.  

About Technosylva

Technosylva is the leading provider of wildfire and extreme weather modeling, risk mitigation, and operational response software. Technosylva's market-leading solutions, enhanced by AI and machine learning capabilities, provide real-time and predictive insights into developing wildfire and extreme weather risks to support electric utility, insurance, and government agency customers. Founded in 1997, Technosylva has offices in La Jolla, CA, León, Spain, and Calgary, Canada. Learn more at www.Technosylva.com.

CenterPoint Energy restores power to 122,000 customers impacted by overnight and early morning storms across the Greater Houston area

CenterPoint restores customers impacted by severe overnight thunderstorms, on average, in less than 100 minutes​

CenterPoint has returned to normal operations and the Emergency Operations Center has been demobilized

HOUSTON – May 27, 2026 – CenterPoint has taken action to restore power to 122,000 customers impacted by the overnight and early morning thunderstorms across the Greater Houston area with an average restoration time of approximately 100 minutes. While crews are continuing to work to restore power safely and as quickly as possible, CenterPoint's Emergency Operations Center has been demobilized and electric business has returned to normal operations.

“Our customers expect and deserve reliable power, and our teams worked around the clock through significant rainfall to safely and quickly restore service to customers who were impacted by the severe storms. We will continue to prioritize restoring power to the remaining impacted customers, many of whom live in areas that experienced significant weather-related damage, until service has been returned to all of our customers in the Greater Houston area," said Jason Fabre, CenterPoint's Vice President of Special Response and Incident Commander.

Restoration & Response Actions (as of 5 p.m.)

CenterPoint's response today followed thunderstorms moving through parts of the Greater Houston area in the early morning hours, with the strongest activity taking place between 2 and 3 a.m. The scope of CenterPoint's storm response and restoration includes the following actions:

  • Approximately 2,000 CenterPoint frontline workers and contractors have restored approximately 122,000 customers since storms arrived around 1 a.m. Wednesday morning.
  • More than 99% of all CenterPoint electric customers currently have power.
  • Since 1 a.m. Wednesday, more than 162,000 Power Alert Service® messages have been shared directly with customers.
  • Across our network of 150 weather stations, we recorded the following with Wednesday's severe thunderstorms:
    • Isolated strong wind gusts of up to 48 mph
      • ​​Widespread winds up to 38 mph
    • ​​​​Isolated rainfall totals of up to 2.65 inches
    • Approximately 6,000 lightning strikes between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. across Houston were recorded via a third-party (Vaisala)
​​Important ways to stay connected to CenterPoint: Power Alert Service

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 Outage Tracker, which allows customers to see outages by county, city and ZIP code.
 

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, Minnesota, Ohio and Texas. As of March 31, 2026, the company owned approximately $47.8 billion in assets. With approximately 8,800 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com.