UPDATE: Fort Bend County officials tell KTRH the outage has been pushed back until July 28th.
ORIGINAL: Centerpoint Energy is moving ahead with a planned outage in the Katy area today.
This was supposed to take place last Friday, but it was pushed back because of the heatwave. That said, it is July 7th. It is summer. It is hot. So, why go ahead with this.
That was what we were hoping to ask Centerpoint. They wouldn't do a phone interview with KTRH. But they did give us a statement.
"As part of our commitment to provide safe and reliable service to our more than 2.7 million electricity customers across the Greater Houston area, we perform necessary maintenance on our equipment and systems throughout the year. In order to support safe conditions, our maintenance requires us, in some instances, to interrupt a customer’s electric service. We do not take this decision lightly, especially in the summer in Houston. That is why we strive to provide our customers with advanced notice so they can prepare and plan ahead. During heat advisories, we work to minimize the impact on our customers by rescheduling certain planned outages and reducing outage duration, if possible, as well as scheduling the planned outage during the morning hours when temperatures are lower. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate our customers’ patience as we conduct this necessary maintenance work."
The Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management wasn't aware of this work until yesterday, when we contacted them.
The work gets underway this morning, and will last for about five hours.