Perry looks about 6, 8, 2 so
yeah and drive and think yeah
that’s right. Yes.
>> All right, thanks all right
and I want to talk about the
power outages right now a lot
of folks saying they’re sitting
in the dark without heat, the
not sure if it’s rolling out
its orbit something related to
some kind of limbs falling on
power lines what have you let’s
check in with their Amy Davis
she’s live in pearland
following the story for us Amy.
>> Hey guys that’s right.
We’re in fairly we know there
are a lot of people here
without power but we’re hearing
people from people all over
community in Cypress all over
have not had power for hours
and so we’ve been trying to get
in touch with centerpoint we
now have centerpoint’s Kenny
mercado he’s the executive vice
president electric utility.
Joining us now to answer some
of the questions that we’ve
been asking this morning. Thanks for joining us. Ken
Thanks for joining us. Ken
area, there.
>> Yes Amy thank you for having
me.
>> Yes, so tell us the current
in center point said that we’re
going to have to do these
rolling outages to protect the
states electric grid, we said
the customers and the looking
at having their power out from
15 minutes to maybe a little
more than an hour. I mean now
we’re hearing from people
haven’t had power since 02:00AM
what’s going on.
>> As you know the state of the
state of Texas led by are
caught manages our bread.
And we deliver the power to our
customers all across the
greater Houston area. Right now
the big challenge that we have
is to fall from one generation continues to be an short supply
continues to be an short supply
at the scene. Units after units
that are owned by other A lot
of power. Late last night early
into this morning and when that
occurs the same time vote is
rising. The great have to stay
stable for have to keep
generation together they have
to stay stable. So we
originally went forward with
the rotational approach where
we rotate outages. But the
demand for reductions and load
quickly surpassed our ability
to make that happen and so now we’re in the second phase or
we’re in the second phase or
second stage and we’re really
at a point where we have to
keep the lower house. There’s
not enough generation to serve
them better than the load so
our systems are working fine.
But we can’t rotating the
longer in the outages are going
to be sustainable for the time
being here. And there’s really
only 2 things we can do right now one is we’ve got to get
now one is we’ve got to get
generation back on by and we’re
waiting for that that’s very
very important. And secondly
we’ve got to conserve low.
And the more that customers.
And whether you’re in the
commercial space. Here in the
school district are in their
urine be.
>> Whatever you may be view can
hurt L reduce your low in cuts
to conserve low that will make
a big impact on our ability. I don’t think Ford I think we
I don’t think Ford I think we
still have a rest. To continue
to look at reducing. As the day
continues to to go on go on. >> Sure and I guess so what I
>> Sure and I guess so what I
hear you say though is that we
have to keep the people who’d
don’t have power keep them off
but there have been many homes
and businesses and properties
that never lost power so for
someone who’s sitting in their
home in can see their own
breath. Can you not give them
electricity and taking off in
another community that has had
power the entire time. >> With the difficulty is we’ve
>> With the difficulty is we’ve
got a couple situations that we
have to manage very very
closely and get their This is a
very serious situation and we
do not want the system to go to
go down so we’re we’ve got to
keep the balance got to keep
the low demand ballots across
Houston and not only that the
ballots across the entire state
of Texas. We’re watching it
very closely for the low that
is out of the purpose is to
help keep the stability of the
bridge that is so important
right now, and then secondly we
have some additional loan that
we’re for her first preserving
because the system will take
over some point and if the
system takes over. It will be
managing the frequency of the
bread enabled it will respond
much faster. We’re trying to
minimize that right now we’re
trying to ask everybody to be
patient with us as we go
through this process because it
is a delicate situation and
we’re doing what we think it’s
a very best we can right now to
keep about level of outages.
But as I said earlier there’s a
possibility that are caught
will ask us to take additional
low turnout and we’re going to
have to do very quickly this
afternoon if necessary so in
all those outages right now
fortunately they are
sustainable can’t. We can’t
bring them back on until we
have generation to serve them.
In the last the last point is
we do have customers that are
on but they’re part of the
burden spurred customer areas
we have water districts we have
cierra district we have
hospitals. We have at least we
have 9.11 or report loads that
we have to preserve and that’s
our our other most important
priority is to protect a
critical blow to her doing what
we think it’s the best we can
to balance all of the needs of
our greater Houston area.
>> Okay can you tell us at this
point how many people are
without power how homes or
properties are without
electricity right now some
centerpoint’s outage Tracker is
offline completely. >> Yeah it’s about it started
>> Yeah it’s about it started
early this morning there was no
less than 30,000. And things
are going very very well we are
monitoring the eye and the
conditions of our transmission
or distribution of that.
For the most part our system
that has held up very well.
From the ice and the snow and
the sleet. But the driver of
those 500,000 outages really is
a lack of generation and until
we get generation back online.
There’s not a lot we can do to
address the situation we’re
just as eager as everybody else
is to get the lights back on as quickly and as safely as we
quickly and as safely as we
can.
>> Okay and and so can you give
me an idea why was the outage
Tracker taken offline because
we’re kind of trying to figure
out where most of these 500,000
people are they spread out of a
missing North South East West.
>> Yeah we we had it we got a
technology issue about 3 or 4
o’clock this morning it’s been
repaired everything should be
working now. So I would assume
that you can go online and get
an accurate reflection of the
system. If not we’re going
continue to work really hard to
get that for you this very
important we want you to be
just as where as we are we
think we’ve got technology
issue addressed we’re trying to
stabilize that hopefully you
have this quick as possible.
>> All right and then the other
thing as people were trying to
call into center point or to
their retail electric
providers. There you know if
they’ve been offline for
without power for several hours
there wondering is this said an
infrastructure issue or when my
part of a rolling outage are
there any issues with downed
power lines or ice on power lines of this causing people to
lines of this causing people to
be without power versus the
rolling outages and sort of
what does that look like.
>> Yeah again I think that they
see the magnitude of this event
is really the generation
outages that is what’s driving.
Our customer outages across the
service area we’re still
evaluating our infrastructure.
We don’t have a lot of
information saying that there’s
a significant damages from our
our infrastructure but offered
a good about it, but we’re
still collecting data. We can
give you a little bit more
information later today giving
an update on the details but at
this point it’s really been
driven by. The the outages that are that have been occurring
are that have been occurring
really just about 01:00AM last
night all the way up the hill.
But the last hour. Just
generating plant it by going
offline.
>> Got it in the reason that I
asked some were concerned that
they were not able to report
outages to you either online or
to get in touch with anybody
but by phone so they said will
what a center point doesn’t
even know that my powers out
how the heck are you going to
reconnect it.
>> Yeah we we know the Power’s
out we have a meter that tells
us digitally the Power’s out we
do want to know if there’s an
unsafe situation if there’s a
hazardous situation such as the
power lines down please report
that to us and multiple channels either through social
channels either through social
media. You know hold a phone
line out 7, 1, 3, 2 ’07 20 to
22. Park West Side all that
should be working now and
please continue to provide that
level of detail that appreciate
it. >> And again Amy we want to
>> And again Amy we want to
make sure that it’s quickly and
safely as we can as soon as we
get generation back online.
>> Do you feel like I know you
guys are doing it sounds like
everything that you can do you
feel our neighbors to the north
and encore service area I’m not
seeing as huge of delays I’m
seeing that they’re saying
powered the off if teen to 45
minutes are you seeing that
we’re having of a bigger
problem, it’s all the same grid
right.
>> And no I think it’s very
similar I’ve been but we’ve
been in touch with what are our
neighbors in the North. About
the same situation this is that
this is a systematic issue
across the state of Texas.
We’re all doing the very best
we can we want to get the
lights back on as soon as we
can take what we can. So
sitting here right now I think
it’s pretty much consistently.
State of Texas.
>> All right so your message
right now for those 500,000 or
so customers sitting at home to
say it’s like 40 degrees inside my house, what should they be
my house, what should they be
doing and how how long do you
see them in for this cold
inside their homes.
>> Yeah, we need to be prepared
like you were saying earlier listen to your your your you
listen to your your your you
know we need to be prepared.
Everybody needs of that.
Find a place they can be where
they can be protect themselves
protect her family. And did it
do to common sense thing to the
very best you can protect your
family. We’re not out of this
yet and they can you know the
concern that I have is this.
The temperatures are going to
get colder. And we don’t have
generation there’s not much I
can We’ve got our resources
ready to work. But we can’t do
the work until we have a
generation of really that
straight or so. I have to be
patient and be safe. And I
recognize that it could be a
little while before we get
power back on. We’ll do our
very best to get that put his
we can’t.
>> Got to just recap for the
people who’d don’t have power
right now plan to not have
power for several more hours
and if you have power. There’s
a possibility you could still
lose it is part of rolling
outages or we’re going to keep
it the way it is and hope that
we don’t have to do anymore.
>> That is correct.
>> Okay, so the people who’ve
got the initial rolling outages
will sort of Barrett for the
rest of us for the long term I
know that sounds terrible but.
>> Yeah, again that’s sort of
what life there is the risk is
that he can get a lot worse
right now we’re doing fine.
System for preventing it
getting worse. But we’re
monitoring it very very closely
and really sensitive to the
outages we want to do our very
best to get the power on as
quickly as we can yeah just be
patient with this I will forget
there and as soon as we can.
>> You think those alley one
last question Kitty does Alex
are people reporting outages
now are back up are we still
you still having issues with
those online and phone numbers
for people to call in or or
should they just say.
>> I think use the phone.
7, 1, 3, 2 ’07 20 to 20 to 22.
Thank you Amy.
>> Thank you so much for
joining us. I know you’re busy,
I appreciate your time. All
right so that was Kenny mercado
centerpoint Energy’s executive
vice president of electric
utility. Answering some
questions that I know so many
of you are so many of you have
had at home this morning.
So what he has told us is that
about 500,000 centerpoint
energy customers which are
people all over the area.
Are without power as a part of
those rolling outages that
started this morning at about
one 30 in what he’s saying is
that instead of rolling those
outages they’re at a point
where they need to keep those
same 500,000 customers without
power be very difficult to hear
because we’re hearing there
some people have not had power
since 2 this morning. So your 7
hours and it’s very cold inside
your homes. He says it’s not at
a point where they can shift
some people have asked us you
know why did people in these
areas not have to have rolling
outages, but we’re stuck with
them for several hours, he said
it may be because of the way
the grade works. Maybe those
people are on the same. Wires
in lines as water plants and
hospitals to where they can’t
shut those down but that there
are strategic reasons why they
picked certain areas with no
power but most importantly, he
said they are in this for the
long haul they’re hoping to not
have to turn off any more
electricity or shut off power
but they don’t know how much
longer this is going to last so
try to stay warm try to you
know bundle up go out to a car
turn on the heater if you have
to just to stay warm for an
hour or so and go back inside
that is the latest that we’re
hearing for centerpoint energy
we’re live in pearland and Amy
Davis KPRC 2 is I want to read
all of the wish for more
specific answers of course,
that is the bottom line and
just make the best of it indeed