MAYOR BILL WHITE, CENTERPOINT REACH TENTATIVE AGREEMENT ON DISPUTED STORM RECOVERY COSTS
July 30, 2009 -- Mayor Bill White today hailed a tentative agreement with CenterPoint Energy that will result in a $15 million reduction in the company’s request to the Public Utility Commission (PUC) to recover costs from Hurricane Ike recovery.
In addition, CenterPoint has agreed to fund monitoring of the electricity distributor’s implementation of recommendations made by the Mayor’s Electric Reliability Task Force. The recommendations released by the task force earlier this year are designed to reduce power outages and the subsequent costs from future natural disasters.
The dispute centered around the mayor’s concern that the company was attempting to be repaid for paying salaries of employees who would have been working regardless of whether the storm had hit or not.
“I am pleased that CenterPoint has agreed to reduce most of the questionable expenses and to help fund additional work to reduce outages in the future. Resolution of this dispute allows CenterPoint and the cities in its service area to move quickly to reduce its carrying costs for all of the expenses,” said Mayor White. “CenterPoint responded with unprecedented staffing to restore power. I applaud our staff and professionals for thoroughly reviewing these costs to reduce any questionable expenditures. There is a financial benefit to consumers in resolving this issue quickly so that CenterPoint can finance these costs at the lowest possible interest rate for consumers.”
