Customers can stay up to date with any potential outage with CenterPoint’s new tracker.
HOUSTON — A cold front arriving on Christmas Eve could bring the potential for severe weather in time for the holiday.
CenterPoint Energy said they are keeping an eye on the potential threat and have executed its enhanced holiday staffing plan, which includes activating additional frontline electric crews. They are also pre-staging additional materials and equipment.
RELATED: Heads up! A Weather Impact Alert has been issued for Christmas Eve into the overnight hours for the chance of storms
“We’re keeping a particularly close watch on the potential for outages that could result from forecasted high wind gusts and lightning. With our entire Houston electric territory in the area of just marginal severe weather risk, we don’t anticipate widespread damage and related outages at this time, but we are coordinating our resources and response for all outcomes,” said Matt Lanza, CenterPoint’s meteorology manager and member of CenterPoint’s Emergency Preparedness and Response team.
They will also be sharing customer communication updates after patrolling the area and assessing any potential damage.
CenterPoint said customers should make their own outage plan as well. Customers can stay up to date with any potential outage with CenterPoint’s new tracker.
During Hurricane Beryl, there were a lot of issues with the tracker. Since then, CenterPoint has launched a new one with significant upgrades.
CenterPoint said the new outage tracker is cloud-based and mobile-friendly. The outage tracker features include:
- Up-to-date: Data is updated to the tracker every five minutes. They added that a customer’s outage status may not change, as it will update once new restoration information is available.
- Mobile-friendly interface: Easy to use on cell phones or tablets.
- Weather integration: Includes a weather integration layer to see how weather may be impacting outages.
- Improved reliability: The tracker is cloud-based. This allows it to be scalable for growth, increased web traffic, and enhanced performance.
- Summary reporting: Provides a summary of outages by county, city, and ZIP code.
- Street and satellite views: This feature helps customers better understand the vegetation density in their area that may impact outages.