Responding to Texas Governor's State of Emergency Declaration for Approaching Winter Storm, CenterPoint Energy Continues to Vigilantly Monitor Forecasts, Deploy Cold Weather Mitigations and Remains Ready to Respond to Potential Severe Weather Impacts

CenterPoint has already completed its winter preparedness checklist and shared it with regulators and stakeholders and continues coordinating with emergency responders across Texas to prepare for expected winter storms this week

Company urges customers to stay alert ahead of changing weather conditions and have a personal emergency plan in place

HOUSTON, Jan. 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- With severe winter weather conditions forecasted to impact much of West and East Texas later this week and into the weekend, Texas Governor Greg Abbott's office has activated the state's emergency response resources. CenterPoint Energy is continually monitoring the changing weather, deploying cold weather mitigations across its electric and gas infrastructure, mobilizing emergency response resources and coordinating with relevant local emergency responders and government officials in preparation for the approaching winter weather system. The company has a cold weather action plan in place and is proactively making preparations to respond to potential electric and natural gas service issues as safely and as quickly as possible.

At this time, CenterPoint does not foresee major winter impacts to its infrastructure.

CenterPoint's enhanced Emergency Response and Preparedness team continues to lead the company's preparedness efforts and coordination with public agencies and community leaders. The team is providing regular updates to relevant agencies and government officials to communicate the company's pre-storm activities and readiness posture and provide critical updates.

"We know how important it is for homes and businesses to have the electric and natural gas service they expect and deserve, especially when severe weather is forecasted to head our way. That's why we remain prepared to respond to any potential impacts to our system from the forecasted colder temperatures across the state, so we can safely and quickly restore service to any impacted customers. Our teams will remain alert and continue to coordinate with local officials as our communities take steps to prepare, and we urge our customers to stay weather alert and have an emergency plan in place," said Richard Leger, CenterPoint's Senior Vice President of Gas Operations.

CenterPoint has taken a series of proactive pre-winter preparedness actions to strengthen and winterize its electric and natural gas infrastructure across Texas, as well as inspect and test cold-weather critical equipment ahead of potential severe cold weather.

Critical winter electric actions taken in the Greater Houston area
CenterPoint Texas has submitted its annual declarations of winter readiness to both the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the Railroad Commission of Texas. These declarations demonstrate that CenterPoint has completed the regulatory requirements that were adopted in 2021 to prepare electric and natural gas infrastructure for winter storms and extreme cold weather.

The pre-winter safety and readiness actions taken by CenterPoint include:

• Inspecting and testing critical equipment, including all 270 substations, to prepare for high demand and cold temperatures;
• Hardening electric and natural gas infrastructure across the Greater Houston area, including installing heaters and devices to prevent ice damage or buildup;
• Maintaining freeze protection equipment and enclosures for cold-weather critical components;
• Repairing damaged or degraded thermal insulation and water-proofing materials; and
• Conducting emergency training for hundreds of operational personnel and contractors to prepare for, mitigate and respond to the impacts of severe winter weather.

Natural gas system preparedness in Texas
Historically, CenterPoint's natural gas system has performed very well during cold weather events, with customers experiencing minimal impact. The company strives to provide natural gas service safely and reliably to its customers and initiates winter preparedness strategies to help protect its natural gas system. These include:

• Positioning Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) trucks to be deployed to supplement the natural gas system, if needed.
• Reinforcing reliability by validating that all station set points are aligned with their cold weather settings and have technicians on standby coordinating closely with engineering and natural gas control.
• Coordinating and communicating with the Railroad Commission of Texas to identify and ensure operations of critical gas infrastructure for natural gas reliability.

2025 Winter Energy Guide 
CenterPoint recently launched its Winter Energy Guide, a comprehensive online resource hub that helps customers throughout the winter heating season. The guide features practical and important safety, energy savings and bill management tips to help customers stay safe and warm throughout the winter season. CenterPoint has a cold weather plan in place to respond quickly to potential impacts this winter, and the company encourages customers to use this helpful resource to create their own cold weather plans so that they're prepared for the colder weather ahead. To learn more about the Winter Energy Guide and to receive more important tips, visit CenterPointEnergy.com/ReadyforWinter.

Outage Tracker and Power Alert Service®
CenterPoint electric customers can stay up-to-date on outages with CenterPoint's new and improved, cloud-based Outage Tracker, which allows customers to see outages by county, city and zip code. The new tracker is capable of handling increased traffic during storms, is scalable during periods of high demand, and is ADA- and mobile-friendly. The data in Outage Tracker is updated every five minutes to provide the most up-to-date details on outages. Additionally, CenterPoint recently released a Spanish-language version of the tool.

Electric customers are also encouraged to enroll in the company's Power Alert Service® to receive outage details, estimated restoration times and customer-specific restoration updates via phone call, text or email.

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, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas. With approximately 9,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com. 

For more information, contact 
Communications 
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SOURCE CenterPoint Energy