CenterPoint Energy has acted on customer and community feedback and launched a community progress tracker map providing local views of resiliency grid upgrades and improvements across the greater Houston area.

The tool allows customers in a 12-county area to view more than 56,000 storm resilient poles, more than 12,500km of tree-trimming, and more than 500 automation and intelligence devices delivered since August 2024.

This web-based, customer-focused map provides direct access to the public to track and measure progress on electric infrastructure upgrades on their street, neighbourhood or zip code.

The tracker is part of the utility’s broader Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI), a multi-year programme to strengthen the electric grid and improve reliability and resiliency in the face of increasingly severe weather events, while improving customer communications. Through GHRI (www.centerpointenergy.com/en-us/corporate/about-us/system-wide-resiliency-plan), CenterPoint is investing in grid-hardening measures designed to reduce outage impacts and accelerate customer outage restoration.

“Our new community progress tracker gives our customers a clear window into the work we’re doing in their local neighbourhoods to improve their service and build a stronger and more resilient electric system,” said Tony Gardner, chief customer officer at CenterPoint. “Whether they access it on their phones, tablets, laptops or desktops, our new tracker details all the different types of work we are doing and the critical upgrades we’ve made in their communities.”

The tool provides location-specific details on work completed to date as part of GHRI. This includes more storm-resilient poles and equipment, undergrounded power lines, enhanced vegetation management, and grid technologies, including automation devices that reduce the impact of outages. All these different scopes of GHRI upgrades are noted on the tracker using colourful and easy-to-identify icons.

While today the tracker visualises all the upgrades and improvements that CenterPoint has delivered over the past 18 months, it will continue to evolve, and future features will soon allow customers to monitor projects underway and upcoming planned resiliency projects in their area. These improvements will allow customers and the public to follow progress in given areas and better understand how these efforts contribute to a more reliable and resilient energy future.

Accessible via desktop and mobile devices, the tracker includes an interactive map of CenterPoint’s 12-county greater Houston service area, and colourful and easy-to-view icons for locations of new poles, tree-trimming kilometres, automation devices, undergrounding and weather stations. Users can zoom in and out functions. The map is searchable by street address or zip code.

“Resiliency is at the heart of everything we’re doing,” said Jesus Soto Junior, chief operating officer at CenterPoint. “From stronger poles and new automation to undergrounding to tree trimming, we’re taking a comprehensive and innovative approach to hardening our infrastructure and delivering greater Houston’s electric system. Our goal is to build the most resilient coastal grid in the nation, and this tool will help our customers follow that journey and see the progress we are making in their communities.”

To explore the community progress tracker, visit CenterPointEnergy.com/Progress. A short how-to video is also available to help navigate the tool at www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS2Fso_FKGY.

CenterPoint Energy (CenterPointEnergy.com) is a multi-state electric and natural gas delivery company serving approximately seven million metered customers across Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Texas. The company is headquartered in Houston