After Houston's grid crashed in the wake of a Category 1 passing just northwest of the metro, an interesting fact that came out was how much that Centerpoint, the Houston-area electric utility, was spending on tree and limb removal and trimming, per customer per year.
It was about $11 and change, while other large TX electricity providers were spending (roughly) $25 - $40 in the same category. I guess that explains with the Centerpoint CEO had generators in his house . . .
Speaking of generators, this is the same utility that spent $800 million on generator leases (that customers paid for) and then didn't use most of them post-Beryl, with 2.5 million people w/o power in Houston, in July. Most of those generators, in fact, weren't portable, and hadn't been set up in logical locations beforehand (hospitals, local government facilities, etc.).
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Alvarado said CenterPoint had asked her to write the letter urging regulators to approve its generator investment. She said the company told her “it would be the quickest way to get power back to our constituents” after a power outage.
“We’re listening to the people that provide power to our constituents, which is CenterPoint,” she said. “Those are the only ones that came to us.”
CenterPoint acknowledged in recent weeks that most of the generators that make up its $800 million investment “are not designed to be mobile,” though it repeatedly made the opposite claim to regulators, lawmakers and investors when seeking funding. The company more recently leased 13 much smaller generators, which it deployed during Beryl, but it would not disclose the costs.
“Prior to the purchase of these large scale temporary generators, there were numerous legislative and regulatory hearings,” CenterPoint spokesperson John Sousa wrote in an email. Sousa added that if state officials now want a different approach, “we are supportive of having this discussion and committed to doing what is best for our customers.”
EDIT
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas-lawmakers-enabled-centerpoint-to-lease-massive-800m-generators-why-are-they-surprised-now/ar-AA1oo0sO
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