Fixing the grid
Regarding “How CenterPoint fleeces Houstonians. And why we still can’t rely on our grid.” (July 21): Loren Steffy hit the nail square on the head. I used to pay my electric bill directly to the supplier. I now have a choice of 50 different middlemen, and they all have a different cost for electricity. That is just a horrible nightmare. Back in the Houston Light & Power days they owned the generators, they owned the transmission lines and they did the billing. It was so simple and not mind-boggling!
Since deregulation how many power plants have been shut down? I know if you decrease the amount of electricity produced, then you can raise the cost of the surviving plants’ electricity. This has been a complete failure, which has cost the consumer a lot more money. All the new billing companies — and the thousands of new jobs they created — have made electricity more costly, and that has hurt the end user. It was so well run when the power companies did it all!
The Legislature has caused a complete failing nightmare. But what would you expect from politicians? The electricity market needs to be under regulation again. Hobie Sibley, League City
Regarding “What CenterPoint and regulators need to do now” (July 21): I totally agree with Ed Hirs recommending clearing vegetation from near power lines as the first and best
solution, but must disagree with the assertion that simply “replacing easily snapped wood utility poles with those made of stronger materials” will also reduce power disruptions. The problem is not that relatively weaker wood poles are being used for electricity distribution. In fact, utility pole design specifications found in the National Electrical Safety Code are based on estimated loading from power lines and telecommunication lines, with geographic or weatherrelated factors such as estimated maximum wind speeds and ice buildup on wires also taken into account. The exact specifications for utility pole dimensions will vary depending on the pole type, whether it’s wood, concrete, steel or fiberglass. So, while wood itself may be “weaker” than concrete, NESC codes prescribe which class of wood pole is needed to meet the design standard. A larger wood pole that is less costly, lighter and most importantly, more readily available at short notice after a major wind event, can be substituted for a smaller non-wood pole that can handle the same load. Jim Brient, Missouri City