01-03-2025
CenterPoint discusses response to January ice storm
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – Debris from the January ice storm is still visible in the form of mulch at the Evansville debris drop-off site. These piles are a reminder of the impact the storm had on the Tri-State. Officials with CenterPoint Energy met with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) to review their response to the storm.
'I think those early, pre-January 5th conversations helped reassure us that our external partners were ready as well,' says Mark Roedel, CenterPoint's Senior Vice President of External Affairs.
Roeder and Shane Bradford, CenterPoint's Vice President of Indiana Electric, say the pre-staging of hundreds of linemen gave a head start on power outage response, which later increased to more than 1,000 by the Wednesday after the storm. CenterPoint officials reveal that at least two workers were injured during the storm.
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'We had one lineman with the CenterPoint in Houston actually slip on ice and break an ankle,' explains Bradford. 'And we had one of our vegetation contractors had a branch fall off and hit him in the head that.'
Bradford says outages peaked Monday January 6, with 61,244 customers in the dark at 4:45 that morning. During the storm, some customers noted issues on the accuracy of the company's outage map, prompting CenterPoint to unveil a new map service this April.
'We're trying to continually improve on that, and I think going to this new platform that CenterPoint in Houston has adopted, will help improve that as well,' says Bradford.
With trees and vegetation weighing down lines during the storm, CenterPoint will look at implementing software that highlights areas of vegetation that could impact existing lines. 'That uses satellite imagery,' explains Bradford, 'and if we can use that to predictively model, you know, some cycles may be three years, some may be four, some may be six depending on the type of vegetation, but if we can do that, that may help us perform our vegetation in a more constructive manner to where we're more reliable.'
No timetable was given on if or when that system would be put into place.
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