Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is six twenty two now here on Houston's boarding news.
That is your biggest concern, Harris County resident, Seventy percent
of us worried moderately or very worried about your home
being without power for more than a day, despite all
the work the Center Point has done to try to
strengthen the grid, and which tells me two things. Number One,
(00:23):
Mother Nature is quite a force here in the griter
Houston area, and you're probably best. Seventy percent of us
are probably worried about a hurricane or a tropical storm
or some other major weather event that could dock your
power out. You know, if millions of people without power,
you're gonna be without power for a couple of days,
because it's just going to take that long for Center
Point to get to you. But it also tells me
that people are concerned about the grid in general and
(00:45):
the resiliency of the grid. David Holt joins as president
of Consumer Energy Alliance. I think Center Point still has
to build back some trust in this town.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
What do you think? Yeah, I think it's right and
I think it's right for Houstonians to zoom that we're
going to lose power at some Point. You know, it's
beyond just Houston. Millions and millions more Americans are living within,
you know, twenty five miles of the coast, fifty miles
of the coast. And as Houstonians, you know, we're used
to weather. We're used to hurricanes, We're we're used to
(01:16):
these weather events. So sometimes you can't beat mother Nature.
Mother nature always wins. And obviously we always need to
heed the warnings of experts that are saying we need
to evacuate or move the higher ground. But listen, Center
Point after and all utilities around the country, after every
major storm event, they do kind of an after action review.
(01:38):
They find out what went right, what went wrong. They're
constantly trying to improve their systems operations. They're dispatching crews
during the storm in most cases to make sure that
power stays on or they return power as clicks as
they possibly can. I know Centerpoint is added a lot
of redundancy, a lot of resiliency to the the grid
(02:00):
in and around Houston to make sure that we can
withstand storms. But you know, many times it's going to
be inevitable. Again, you can't beat mother nature, and we
always need to be prepared. But In my personal view,
I think Centerpoint has done a lot of good work
to prepare and be as ready as they possibly can.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Well, you know, they did it to themselves though, David,
to be honest, I mean, they were behind the curve.
They didn't do the necessary maintenance that they should have
been doing. And when they finally got to the point
where even the governor's threatening to come up with a
different solution regarding our power needs, then well you got
to take action at that point, don't.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
You, No no doubt, no doubt, you know. And Center
Point was, to their credit, took ownership of it and
admitted some some things they could have done better. And
you know, they've added some communication tools. There's apps, there's
online tools for folks when you lose power. It gives
you a pretty good update on when power is going
(02:59):
to be restored. Things like that. But you're right, you know,
the more good communication with the community, making sure if
folks understand what's going on, what they've done, what they've
done since you know, the last big storm, where you know,
I think admittedly things could have gone better. You know,
(03:19):
that's that's that's how you restore trust and you know,
more conversation more communication to go for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I think the trust gets restored if we get a
big storm and power is restored relatively quickly and people
can see that, yeah, they did all the things that
they said they.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Did exactly right, Yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Nothing they can do about it until then. It's interesting though,
to me that we're more worried about losing our power
for a day this summer than we're worried about high
wind damage or flooding. Only forty four percent are worried
about flooding. We get a lot of flooding.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
You know, that survey was very interesting, and you know,
it was over two thousand Houstonians, so it's, you know,
a pretty good sample size. But you know, I think
to me, kind of maybe all that rolls in together
a little bit, and you know, regardless of how you
lose power, Houstonians are rightfully aware that power is likely
(04:10):
to go out at some point due to some reason.
So I think that's the That was my takeaway at it.
And we are right to be concerned and aware and
planning for power outages because in our community, you know,
sometimes it's going to be inevitable.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, I hope we're also doing the same kind of
planning David Holidays. It relates to the future electrical needs
here to Bill with Apple making that announcement of doing
AI here in Houston, that draws a lot of power.
We better be ready to generate some more power, don't
you think.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Oh, that is one of the big, big issues for
the state of Texas, for Houston and for the nation.
You know, we're going to need about fourteen percent more
power nationally just in the next two years to power
AI and data centers. How we get that power is
a big question. We need to start adding it. It
(05:01):
needs to be what's called, you know, dispatchable baseload power,
which is kind of always available, largely coming from natural gas.
How do we add nuclear to our grid. All the
issues that you know we've talked about of time or
two on resiliency, redundancy, reliability, all those things are big concerns.
And of course we want to make sure we keep
(05:22):
the prices down, so you know, affordable, reliable, redundant energy
is greatly needed. And the AI race with China is
a national security issue, so we've got to we've got
to win it. We've got to create those jobs. We
want those jobs here in Houston here in Texas, and
that means the more power that needs more grid support,
(05:43):
and a lot of that starts with the legislature and
the PUC and obviously Centerpoint as well.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Right, David, thank you, appreciate your time. David Hole, President
of Consumer Energy Alliance, six twenty eight
It is six twenty two now here on Houston's boarding news.
That is your biggest concern, Harris County resident, Seventy percent
of us worried moderately or very worried about your home
being without power for more than a day, despite all
the work the Center Point has done to try to
strengthen the grid, and which tells me two things. Number One,
(00:23):
Mother Nature is quite a force here in the griter
Houston area, and you're probably best. Seventy percent of us
are probably worried about a hurricane or a tropical storm
or some other major weather event that could dock your
power out. You know, if millions of people without power,
you're gonna be without power for a couple of days,
because it's just going to take that long for Center
Point to get to you. But it also tells me
that people are concerned about the grid in general and
(00:45):
the resiliency of the grid. David Holt joins as president
of Consumer Energy Alliance. I think Center Point still has
to build back some trust in this town.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
What do you think? Yeah, I think it's right and
I think it's right for Houstonians to zoom that we're
going to lose power at some Point. You know, it's
beyond just Houston. Millions and millions more Americans are living within,
you know, twenty five miles of the coast, fifty miles
of the coast. And as Houstonians, you know, we're used
to weather. We're used to hurricanes, We're we're used to
(01:16):
these weather events. So sometimes you can't beat mother Nature.
Mother nature always wins. And obviously we always need to
heed the warnings of experts that are saying we need
to evacuate or move the higher ground. But listen, Center
Point after and all utilities around the country, after every
major storm event, they do kind of an after action review.
(01:38):
They find out what went right, what went wrong. They're
constantly trying to improve their systems operations. They're dispatching crews
during the storm in most cases to make sure that
power stays on or they return power as clicks as
they possibly can. I know Centerpoint is added a lot
of redundancy, a lot of resiliency to the the grid
(02:00):
in and around Houston to make sure that we can
withstand storms. But you know, many times it's going to
be inevitable. Again, you can't beat mother nature, and we
always need to be prepared. But In my personal view,
I think Centerpoint has done a lot of good work
to prepare and be as ready as they possibly can.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Well, you know, they did it to themselves though, David,
to be honest, I mean, they were behind the curve.
They didn't do the necessary maintenance that they should have
been doing. And when they finally got to the point
where even the governor's threatening to come up with a
different solution regarding our power needs, then well you got
to take action at that point, don't.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
You, No no doubt, no doubt, you know. And Center
Point was, to their credit, took ownership of it and
admitted some some things they could have done better. And
you know, they've added some communication tools. There's apps, there's
online tools for folks when you lose power. It gives
you a pretty good update on when power is going
(02:59):
to be restored. Things like that. But you're right, you know,
the more good communication with the community, making sure if
folks understand what's going on, what they've done, what they've
done since you know, the last big storm, where you know,
I think admittedly things could have gone better. You know,
(03:19):
that's that's that's how you restore trust and you know,
more conversation more communication to go for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I think the trust gets restored if we get a
big storm and power is restored relatively quickly and people
can see that, yeah, they did all the things that
they said they.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Did exactly right, Yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Nothing they can do about it until then. It's interesting though,
to me that we're more worried about losing our power
for a day this summer than we're worried about high
wind damage or flooding. Only forty four percent are worried
about flooding. We get a lot of flooding.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
You know, that survey was very interesting, and you know,
it was over two thousand Houstonians, so it's, you know,
a pretty good sample size. But you know, I think
to me, kind of maybe all that rolls in together
a little bit, and you know, regardless of how you
lose power, Houstonians are rightfully aware that power is likely
(04:10):
to go out at some point due to some reason.
So I think that's the That was my takeaway at it.
And we are right to be concerned and aware and
planning for power outages because in our community, you know,
sometimes it's going to be inevitable.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, I hope we're also doing the same kind of
planning David Holidays. It relates to the future electrical needs
here to Bill with Apple making that announcement of doing
AI here in Houston, that draws a lot of power.
We better be ready to generate some more power, don't
you think.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Oh, that is one of the big, big issues for
the state of Texas, for Houston and for the nation.
You know, we're going to need about fourteen percent more
power nationally just in the next two years to power
AI and data centers. How we get that power is
a big question. We need to start adding it. It
(05:01):
needs to be what's called, you know, dispatchable baseload power,
which is kind of always available, largely coming from natural gas.
How do we add nuclear to our grid. All the
issues that you know we've talked about of time or
two on resiliency, redundancy, reliability, all those things are big concerns.
And of course we want to make sure we keep
(05:22):
the prices down, so you know, affordable, reliable, redundant energy
is greatly needed. And the AI race with China is
a national security issue, so we've got to we've got
to win it. We've got to create those jobs. We
want those jobs here in Houston here in Texas, and
that means the more power that needs more grid support,
(05:43):
and a lot of that starts with the legislature and
the PUC and obviously Centerpoint as well.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Right, David, thank you, appreciate your time. David Hole, President
of Consumer Energy Alliance, six twenty eight
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