In an extensive interview with KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding , CenterPoint Energy’s Executive Vice President of Regulatory Services and Government Affairs, Jason Ryan, addressed the controversial power outage map that disappeared from the company’s website during critical moments in May.
During the interview, Ryan acknowledged the significant frustration felt by residents when the outage map vanished, leaving them without crucial information about power restoration times. This issue became particularly concerning as temperatures soared, with the heat index reaching triple digits.
As the company moves forward, the development of a new and improved outage tracker aims to prevent similar failures in the future, ensuring customers are kept informed during critical times.
Goulding asked about the outage map’s failure, asking how it happened and if the company felt it had let customers down.
“Yeah. We know we didn’t meet customer expectations when that wasn’t available, when they needed it most. And that’s not acceptable to us or to our customers. We understand that. There was a tremendous amount of traffic on that website, more than it was designed for, and it failed. We’re working on a replacement project. That will have a new and improved outage tracker that will not have that same failure,” Ryan responded.
Reflecting on CenterPoint’s overall response to the storm, Ryan was asked to rate the company’s performance.
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“I think the men and women in the field, that restored customers, quickly and safely, deserve the highest score. If you look at our peer utilities and look at our past performance, even from a communications perspective, because of the outage tracker issues, we don’t have the highest score there. We know that we miss customers’ expectations there,” Ryan said.
