CenterPoint Energy has surpassed 500 miles of hardened power lines as part of its Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI), marking another milestone in the utility's multi-year effort to strengthen its distribution system against hurricanes and other severe weather.

The company said it remains on pace to harden 750 miles of distribution lines by the end of 2026. The work includes upgrading poles, conductors, transformers and other equipment to better withstand extreme weather while improving everyday system reliability.

The line-hardening program is one component of the GHRI, which CenterPoint launched in August 2024 following widespread outages caused by major storms in the Houston region. The initiative focuses on strengthening critical distribution infrastructure, expanding grid automation, undergrounding targeted circuits and reducing vegetation-related outages.

According to CenterPoint, the utility has completed the following resiliency improvements to date:

• Hardened more than 500 miles of power lines.
• Installed more than 75,500 stronger, storm-resistant utility poles.
• Cleared or trimmed vegetation along more than 13,000 miles of distribution lines.
• Deployed more than 750 automated switching devices to improve fault isolation and restoration.
• Undergrounded more than 850 miles of power lines.

CenterPoint estimates the combined investments will help avoid more than 150 million customer outage minutes by the end of 2026 through reduced outage frequency and faster restoration.

"All across Greater Houston, our GHRI efforts are focused on building a stronger, more resilient and reliable energy system that can better withstand more powerful storms and extreme weather now and in the future," Nathan Brownell, vice president of resilience and capital delivery for CenterPoint Energy, said in a statement. "We are making historic progress, and we will not stop until we achieve our goal of building the most resilient coastal grid in the country."

The utility's use of distribution automation is intended to create more self-healing capabilities across the network by automatically isolating faults and restoring service to unaffected customers. Meanwhile, targeted undergrounding and expanded vegetation management are designed to reduce storm-related outages in high-risk areas.

CenterPoint has positioned the GHRI as its long-term grid modernization and storm hardening strategy for the Greater Houston service territory, with additional resiliency projects scheduled through 2026. The company said it remains on track to complete all major GHRI objectives by the end of next year, including the 750-mile line-hardening target.