SUBJECT: CNP-M-A091321-07 CNP Continues in Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) for Hurricane Nicholas – Update 7

NOTICE DATE: September 16, 2021

NOTICE TYPE CNP-M-A091321-07 – Update 7

DAYS AFFECTED: September 13, 2021 forward until further notice.

SHORT DESCRIPTION:  CenterPoint Energy continues its Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) in response to the landfall of Hurricane Nicholas along the Texas Gulf Coast.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: All Market Participants

LONG DESCRIPTION:  CenterPoint Energy continues its Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) in response to the landfall of Hurricane Nicholas along the Texas Gulf Coast. CenterPoint Energy continues to make significant progress restoring power in the Greater Houston area and surrounding communities following Hurricane Nicholas’ impact earlier this week.

NEW Information:

Operating Conditions:

• The company has restored service to more than 443,000 electric customers, down from a peak outage count of 460,000 at 8 a.m. CT on Sept. 14.
• As of 2:00 PM CST Friday, September 17, 2021, CenterPoint Energy has approximately 16,000 customers that remain without power.
• More than 5,000 employees, contractors and mutual assistance crew members continue to work around-the-clock to make repairs and restore service to our customers.
• As repairs become more complex our focus remains on safety since crews will be working in closer proximity as they concentrate efforts on the more challenging outage issues caused by the storm’s extensive damage. Significant progress is expected within the next 48 hours and we anticipate having the majority of the remaining outages cleared up by then.
• We appreciate our customers’ continued patience and understanding as we work to restore their service as safely and quickly as possible and address the more challenging outage issues.

 

 

Service Order Execution

• Service Orders requiring field execution will resume Monday, September 20, 2021.
• CenterPoint Energy will hold pending service orders with current date wanted and a mass turndown will not be taking place.
• The DNP moratorium activated in advance of the EOP event will expire Sunday September 19, 2021, and CNP will resume working these orders Monday, September 20, 2021.  

 

Billing Impacts

• The delivery of LSE files is processing on a normal schedule.
• AMS meter reads may contain estimation of missing intervals however, read rates are achieving a 99.8% success rate.
• Estimation routines do account for outage activity and will be estimated with 0 usage as needed.
• The “gap fill” process to replace estimated usage is continuing as more meters reestablish communications with our data collection infrastructure.

 

Market Actions(s)

We ask the public and our market partners continue to:

• Stay away from downed power lines.
• Leverage CenterPoint Energy’s Power Alert Service (PAS) for important updates and estimation of restoration times.

 

For latest information on power outages*:

• Sign up for Power Alert Service for information on individual outages;
• Follow @cnpalerts and visit Outage Tracker for general outage locations; and
• Visit CenterPointEnergy.com/StormCenter for electric and natural gas safety tips and other resources.

 

Next Market Update:

 

CenterPoint Energy will communicate further updates via Market Notices as warranted. No additional market calls are planned at this time. If you have questions please email your account manager or Competitive Retailer Relations @ [log in to unmask]

 

Competitive Retailer Relations

CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, LLC