Winter storm could knock out power for up to 200,000 Houston area customers, CenterPoint says – khou.com
Officials say most Houston customers will be restored within 12 hours if they have a loss of power.
HOUSTON — CenterPoint Energy officials said Saturday they are projecting between 100,000 and 200,000 customer outages over the next couple of days as a winter storm brings freezing rain and ice to the Houston area.
The utility, which serves 2.9 million homes and businesses across 12 counties in the greater Houston area, has mobilized 3,300 workers to respond to the event, including crews from nine states.
“When we look at the current weather models and when we also look at similar storms, so when we look at 2018, we are projecting that there might be between 100,000 and 200,000 outages in total over a couple of days,” said Keith Stevens, chief communications officer for CenterPoint Energy.
Stevens emphasized that the outages would not all occur at once and would be restored on a rolling basis. The utility expects to restore most customers within 12 hours or less.
The area is expecting about one-tenth of an inch of ice across most of the footprint, with lesser amounts to the south and east and isolated higher totals to the north and west. Lead meteorologist Lena Jakowski said the forecast could improve slightly because the cold front arrived faster than expected, creating conditions more favorable for sleet than freezing rain.
“Part of the reason why we’re expecting more sleet is because the temperatures, the front in the system has moved in a little bit faster than originally anticipated, and so the cold is in place a little bit quicker, and that’s more of a profile that would lend to sleet coming down versus freezing rain, a more favorable outcome,” Jakowski said.
The region is expected to remain at or below freezing for 24 to 36 hours, with two freezes anticipated overnight Sunday and Monday. Most of Houston will see temperatures between 30 and 33 degrees on Sunday, with widespread 20s and teens in outlying areas on Monday morning.
CenterPoint has positioned over 1,500 trucks at 13 operating centers and two staging sites. The company has stockpiled more than 9,000 poles, nearly 12,000 transformers and 100,000 splices for repairs.
Northern areas are expected to see greater impacts, while areas closer to the coast should experience fewer problems. Officials urged residents to stay off the roads during the storm and to stay at least 35 feet away from any downed power lines.
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