ATASCOCITA, Texas – Residents in an Atascocita-area community say electrical issues are frying their home appliances, sparking safety concerns and costing thousands of dollars in repairs and replacements. They believe CenterPoint Energy is to blame — and they want the problem fixed and their money back.
The problem, neighbors say, isn’t isolated to one house. Homeowners in the Lakewood Pines community have been voicing their frustrations on the neighborhood’s Facebook page. The complaints range from flickering lights and AC units that stopped cooling to appliances turning on and off on their own before burning out entirely.
Alexis DeLeon showed KPRC 2 the issue firsthand.
“The power goes on and off at different times,” DeLeon said.
DeLeon says the electrical problems have affected her AC system and every major appliance in her home, including her washer.
“Basically, when a breaker flipped, it turned off mid-cycle and just went out,” she said.
It took DeLeon some time to connect the dots. But once she started talking to neighbors, she realized she wasn’t alone. Josh Blair, another Lakewood Pines resident, says he’s dealing with a failing compressor in his AC system — a financial hit he wasn’t prepared for.
“I’m an educator on an educator’s salary, and I’m currently in school for nursing, so money is tight,” Blair said. “But my kids are at home, my wife works from home — we have to keep the house cool.”
Blair says he initially tried to manage the situation on his own. But after speaking directly with CenterPoint technicians — who happened to be working in the neighborhood — he says he was told the source of the problem.
“The voltage into the community is what’s causing the issue,” Blair said. “I heard that directly from CenterPoint’s technicians that came out. I talked to them around Aug. 2.”
The data backs up what residents are experiencing. Bob Marshall, CEO of Ting Labs, says his company operates a nationwide network of sensors that tracks power quality — monitoring outages and electrical issues to help prevent electrical fires.
“Overall, we see that the greater Houston area has roughly two times the number of outages that we see across the country on average,” Marshall said. “In Atascocita, we’re seeing on the order of 2.5 to 3 power outages per home per month. The average U.S. home has 0.5 power outages per home per month.”
KPRC 2 reached out to CenterPoint Energy for comment. In a statement, the company said:
CenterPoint Energy is committed to providing our Lakewood Pines customers with resilient and reliable power every single day. As part of this commitment, we have been following up with affected customers in the neighborhood, and our team is taking immediate actions to respond and resolve the operational issue. As always, we will continue to work directly with our customers in the area to address their concerns, answer questions and provide the reliable and resilient energy system that all our Greater Houston area customers expect and deserve.