I’m sure CenterPoint will be happy when there are no more stories about the cursed things.
No longer seen at I-10 and Sawyer
CenterPoint Energy “did not adequately follow its own practices” in leasing power generators that went mostly unused after Hurricane Beryl, despite their nearly $1 billion price tag, according to a third-party audit of the deal.
The Houston-area utility couldn’t show evidence that it completed formal risk assessments for the vendor it chose in 2021, or that it considered potential conflicts of interests, the audit found.
Both of those findings affirm key flashpoints in a contentious 2022 legal battle over whether CenterPoint could pass on its costs leasing the massive generators to customers. Texas utility regulators, at the urging of state lawmakers, ultimately went against the recommendations of state administrative law judges to approve the first such rate hike in 2023.
The audit, conducted by consulting firm Moss Adams, came at the behest of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. He was one of many to criticize CenterPoint’s nearly $1 billion generator lease after a Houston Chronicle investigation in Hurricane Beryl’s aftermath revealed none of the large units had been used to restore power.
Since then, CenterPoint has said its set of 15 large generators are meant for rare blackouts that occur when power plants in the state can’t generate enough electricity to meet demand, such as what happened during the February 2021 freeze.
[…]
The finding aligns with the complaints of state regulators and lawmakers who have said that CenterPoint misled them to believe the large generators could be used to restore power after hurricanes. The company’s CEO has previously apologized to lawmakers for not communicating more clearly.
In a Friday email statement, Keith Stephens, CenterPoint’s chief communications officer, said the company “greatly appreciates the valuable insights provided by Moss Adams” in the audit and the community’s feedback over the last year.
CenterPoint has already completed or is making progress toward completing each of Moss Adams’ key recommendations, Stephens wrote. The utility is also more than 90% complete with a “historic” set of improvements to prepare for the upcoming hurricane season, he said.
See here for the previous entry. Not much to add here, I think we can feel confident that CenterPoint learned something from this debacle. It’ll be summer soon, so let’s all hope they learned enough.