Public Utility Commission discusses legislative recommendations to grid reliability oversight committee

AUSTIN (NEXSTAR) -- The executive director of the Public Utility Commission, Connie Corona, delivered testimony to the Grid Reliability Legislative Oversight Committee Tuesday morning where she spoke about recommendations the Legislature could take in the upcoming session.

A majority of Corona's recommendations were mentioned in a November report on the investigation into how utilities prepared and responded to Hurricane Beryl in greater Houston.

People were without power for weeks after the hurricane passed through the city. The investigation found people were upset with the lack of communication and updates on service restoration.

The report recommends the Legislature codify the customer's right to information about restoration times and the ability to get ahold of a utility over the telephone. Currently the commission can enforce Investor-Owned Utilities to have a functioning outage map, but does not have that same power for Municipally Owned Utilities. Action from the legislature could change that.

Corona also said utilities should establish some type of designated contact method for customers to communicate with the utility company about hazardous vegetation that could wreak havoc on power lines during storms.

The commission will also release more recommendations in its biennial report in January. Corona said during the hearing that those recommendations would deal with infrastructure standards and utility pole inspections.