T&D World and Utility Products know that linemen are often on the go. That's why we created the new Line Life podcast series to give linemen the opportunity to listen to audio stories about life in the trade.
For our second podcast, narrated by Danielle Blanchette, we are featuring an article in the "Storm Stories" series about CenterPoint Energy's line crews. Linemen replaced transformers following an ice storm and load shedding event, which affected 1.4 million CenterPoint Energy customers in Houston. As soon as additional power generation was available, the electric crews began their restoration work.
At the peak of the winter storm, 1.4 million of CenterPoint Energy’s 2.6 million customers were out of power in Houston and surrounding areas. Due to an insufficient supply of electricity from power generators, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) directed the regulated utility to reduce load on its system.
About 10 a.m. on Feb. 17, the company received the first load restore order from ERCOT, which meant that power generation sources were beginning to come back online and increasing capacity. By midnight, power generation was fully available. By the next morning, within 12 hours of sufficient generation being restored, CenterPoint Energy was able to restore service to 99.64% of impacted customers. By Saturday, the utility was back to normal operations.
“The linemen restored service safely and quickly, and by Saturday we were able to release resources to help other electricity providers across the state,” says Julienne Sugarek, vice president of power delivery solutions for CenterPoint Energy. “I’m proud of our people and our system.”
To listen to the full audio story, simply click here.
After you listen to the audio story, we'd love to hear from you about your most memorable storm. You can leave a message on the podcast page or send us a note or voice memo to [email protected]
Line Life Podcast: Now on Podbean
T&D World's Line Life Podcast is now on Podbean, and starting in January 2024, it is moving from monthly to weekly distribution. Follow us on Podbean to be notified when new episodes are available. If you have a suggestion for a podcast guest, email us at [email protected]. Check out our latest episodes below.
