CenterPoint Energy's electricity rate increase request denied by Houston leaders

HOUSTON, Texas -- Houston officials have denied CenterPoint Energy's Distribution Cost Recovery Factor rate application on March 26 while suspending another rate increase. Both applications would increase residential customers' electricity and natural gas monthly bills by $2.22 and $2.88, respectively.

A closer look

The first application denied was the Distribution Cost Recovery Factor rate originally filed Feb. 28, according to the Houston City Council agenda item. The DCRF rate increase would have helped cover the cost of the company's ongoing investments, replace aging infrastructure and bolster the system to build resiliency, according to the proposal.

CenterPoint requested a revenue requirement increase of $122.6 million, which would have resulted in customers experiencing a $2.22 monthly bill increase.

FROM AUG. 2024: CenterPoint withdraws its request to increase customers' electricity rate after intense criticism

What else?

The other application was the Gas Reliability Infrastructure Program interim rate adjustment filed Feb. 18 with the Railroad Commission of Texas. GRIP allows natural gas utilities to recover costs related to making safety and reliability upgrades to its natural gas system, with CenterPoint pointing to projects conducted from October 2023 to December 2024, according to the company's fact sheet.

These projects included investments to replace 300 miles of natural gas pipes across Texas and installing 175,000 new Intelis gas meters with improved safety and accuracy features.

According to the agenda item, CenterPoint is requesting a revenue requirement increase of nearly $71 million to retail gas customers within its Houston, Texas Coast, South Texas and Beaumont/East Texas geographic rate areas.

According to the customer notice, if approved by the Railroad Commission, Houston customers could see those increases.

CenterPoint's request will take effect April 19--- 60 days after filing, according to the agenda item. Houston officials voted to suspend the proposed effective date for 45 days or until June 3.

This suspension period will provide Houston's rate experts the time to review the request, address potential corrections to the calculations with CenterPoint, and prepare a final recommendation for consideration by the mayor and City Council, according to the agenda item.

This article comes from our ABC13 partners at Community Impact Newspapers.