CenterPoint Energy Ready to Respond to Impacts of Extreme Heat and Isolated Thunderstorms across the Greater Houston Area today, while Continuing to Prepare for potential[...]

​Additional CenterPoint preparations underway as the hottest temperatures of the year so far may impact equipment in some areas on Tuesday and Wednesday ahead of any potential tropical impacts later in the week

Key actions taken to date: activating Emergency Operations Center, mobilizing approximately 1,050 frontline workers with an additional 1,100 available if needed, conducting outreach to customers, and coordinating with local emergency response partners​

HOUSTON - July 21, 2026 - As part of its overall response to prepare for the potential impacts of now Tropical Storm Bertha as well as the hottest temperatures of the year so far, CenterPoint Energy has activated its Emergency Operations Center as of Monday, July 20^th at 12:00 PM CT. CenterPoint continues to take a series of readiness actions, including closely monitoring weather conditions and proactively mobilizing approximately 1,050 frontline personnel to respond to storm-related outages, conducting outreach to customers, and coordinating with local officials and emergency response partners. Additionally, the company has secured an additional 1,100 contractors to help support restoration efforts, if needed.

Based on current weather forecasts, the National Hurricane Center predicts Tropical Storm Bertha will weaken upon approach to the southeast TX coastline - arriving on Friday as a Tropical Depression or Post-Tropical area of low pressure. Minimal impacts include the potential for wind gusts of mainly 25-35mph, and rain totals of mainly 1-2" or below from isolated thunderstorms as most of the storm's impacts are displaced on the south side over open Gulf waters. To prepare for potential impacts of now Tropical Storm Bertha, CenterPoint Energy is once again urging all customers to immediately enroll in Power Alert Service® to receive important updates about their gas and electric service via text, email or phone calls, including service outages and estimated restoration times.

"Re-affirming our all-hazards approach to emergency preparedness, our team continues to take critical actions to prepare for the both the current Tropical Storm Bertha in the Gulf as well as the hottest temperatures of the season, including activating our Emergency Operations Center and mobilizing more than 1,050 frontline crew members to prepare for the impacts of these weather events. We are also in close contact with our emergency partners to be ready to respond and restore power safely and as quickly as possible. Finally, we are urging our customers and their families to take steps to stay safe, including signing up for Power Alert Service to get the latest updates on outages and restoration times," said Nathan Brownell, CenterPoint Energy's Vice President, Resilience and Capital Delivery and Incident Commander.

Actions CenterPoint Energy is Taking to Respond
As part of its continued preparedness efforts, CenterPoint Energy is taking the following actions to prepare for and respond to the potential impacts of Tropical Storm Bertha for its Greater Houston area customers:

• Activated Emergency Operations Center: Coordinating local preparedness and response efforts.
• Actively monitoring weather: Closely monitoring National Hurricane Center forecasts and evolving weather conditions that could impact Texas.
• Secured crews and equipment: Additional crews and equipment to quickly respond to potential storm impacts once conditions have cleared.
• Communicating with customers: Communicating directly to customers via email, phone, text or other channels to keep them informed and prepared, with over 980,000 communications sent to date.
• Promoting Power Alert Service®: Urging customers to sign up for Power Alert Service® to receive important updates about their gas and electric service via phone call, text or email, including outage details and estimated restoration times.
• Conducting outreach to critical care customers: Reaching out to identified Critical Care Residential and Chronic Condition Residential electric customers by email, phone and/or text to make them aware of the potential for storm-related outages.
• Coordinating with government officials: Providing regular updates to federal, state, county and city officials regarding preparedness activities.
  

​Emergency Communications: Sign Up for Power Alert Service®
To receive important updates about gas and electric service via phone call, text or email, including outage details and estimated restoration times, CenterPoint Energy customers are strongly encouraged to enroll in Power Alert Service®. As part of CenterPoint Energy's overall emergency communications efforts, customers can stay up to date on local outages with its cloud-based Outage Tracker, available in English and Spanish, which allows customers to see outages and restoration times by county, city and zip code.

Emergency Preparations: What Customers Can Do to Stay Safe
To help ensure their safety, CenterPoint Energy is encouraging all its customers and their families to follow their emergency plan during this event. Customers can find specific safety tips to help them prepare at CenterPointEnergy.com/ActionCenter.

About CenterPoint Energy, Inc.

As the only investor owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Texas. As of March 31, 2026, the company owned approximately $47.8 billion in assets. With approximately 8,800 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com.