When a hurricane knocks out your power for a week, your electricity bill does not stop, but the pieces that continue may surprise you. Understanding exactly what you owe, who to call, and what backup power option fits your situation can make the difference between a manageable disruption and a genuinely costly one. This guide covers billing during outages, CenterPoint's role on the Gulf Coast, and a clear comparison of generators versus battery backup systems for coastal Texas households.
How Texas Electricity Billing Works During a Power Outage
Most of Texas has a deregulated electricity market, which means two separate companies touch your power: a retail electric provider (REP) sells you the electricity, and a transmission and distribution utility (TDU) delivers it over the wires. When a hurricane causes an outage, the TDU is responsible for restoring power. Your REP has no control over that timeline.
During the outage itself, you consume no electricity, so the energy charge portion of your bill drops to zero. However, most retail plans include a fixed monthly base charge, typically between $4.95 and $9.95 per month, that does not disappear just because the lights are off. That charge covers the administrative cost of maintaining your account, not the electricity you use. It continues regardless of outage length.
On the TDU side, CenterPoint Energy, which serves the Houston metro and much of the upper Gulf Coast, assesses its own fixed monthly charges (a $2.11 customer charge plus a $2.79 metering charge, about $4.90 combined in CenterPoint's most recent PUCT rate report), plus a per-kWh delivery charge. Those per-kWh charges stop accruing when consumption stops, but the flat monthly charges do not. The practical result: a household that loses power for two weeks may still owe roughly $10 to $15 in fixed fees for that billing period, even with zero energy use.
One additional billing nuance deserves attention. Sixteen of the 115 plans listed on Choose My Power as of September 14, 2026, carry a bill-credit cliff, meaning a bill at 500 kWh runs $25 or more above the 1,000 kWh bill for the same plan. If a hurricane knocks your monthly usage well below the credit threshold, you could pay a higher effective rate than you expected, even in a month when you had no power for days. Households on those plans should model their post-storm bill carefully before assuming it will be low.
CenterPoint Outage Billing: What the Utility Does and Does Not Owe You
CenterPoint Energy is the TDU for the greater Houston area and surrounding coastal counties. It does not set your electricity rate and it does not sell you power. What it does control is the physical infrastructure: poles, lines, transformers, and substations.
After a major hurricane, CenterPoint restores power under the emergency operations plan it files with the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), which in practice follows a priority sequence: transmission lines first, then hospitals and critical facilities, then residential neighborhoods. Texas's post-Beryl response has run through reliability enforcement rather than customer compensation: Senate Bill 1789, effective September 1, 2025, tightened electric service quality and reliability standards and allows the PUCT to reduce a utility's return on equity when it fails to meet infrastructure standards and its system is damaged in a weather event, and directs the commission to consider factors including the duration of each interruption in a feeder's service when it decides on enforcement action, while a 2026 PUCT rulemaking to implement the law proposes raising distribution feeder performance standards. On the billing side, CenterPoint's PUCT-approved retail delivery tariff commits the company only to using reasonable diligence to provide continuous delivery, does not guarantee against interruptions, and carries force majeure and limitation-of-liability terms.
What that means in practice: do not expect a credit on your CenterPoint delivery charges for time spent without power. If your REP chooses to issue a goodwill credit, that is the REP's decision, not a regulatory requirement. Some REPs did offer credits after Winter Storm Uri in 2021 and after Beryl, but it was voluntary and inconsistent across providers.
If an outage damages equipment inside your home because of a surge or improper reconnection, CenterPoint has a claims process for property damage. File as promptly as possible after the incident and document everything with photos. The claim does not guarantee compensation, but it is the correct channel.
Generator vs. Battery Backup: The Coastal Texas Comparison
For households in Galveston, Brazoria, Chambers, or Harris counties, extended outages are not hypothetical. Hurricane Harvey (2017) and Hurricane Beryl (2024) each left significant portions of the coast without power for days to weeks. Choosing a backup power source before a storm is a meaningful financial and safety decision.
Portable Gas Generator
A mid-range portable generator (5,000 to 7,500 watts) costs $700 to $1,200 at retail. It can run a window AC unit, a refrigerator, and basic lighting simultaneously. Fuel consumption runs roughly 0.5 to 0.75 gallons of gasoline per hour at half load. In a seven-day outage at eight hours of daily runtime, that is 28 to 42 gallons of gasoline, which at current Texas pump prices represents a meaningful added cost on top of the unit purchase.
The critical constraint is fuel availability. After a major hurricane, gas stations in affected areas frequently run dry within 24 to 48 hours. Households without pre-stored fuel (stored safely in approved containers, rotated regularly) may find a generator useless at exactly the moment it is needed most. Carbon monoxide risk is also serious: portable generators must run outdoors, at least 20 feet from the house with exhaust directed away from windows and doors, per CPSC guidelines.
Standby Natural Gas Generator
A permanently installed standby generator, connected to the natural gas line, eliminates the fuel storage problem. Natural gas delivery is generally more reliable than gasoline supply after storms, though gas line damage can occur in severe events. Installed costs for a whole-home standby unit range from $5,000 to $15,000 or more, depending on wattage and installation complexity. These systems start automatically within seconds of an outage, require annual maintenance, and can run for days without manual intervention.
For households with medical equipment, infants, or elderly residents, the automatic transfer and reliability often justify the cost.
Home Battery Backup
Battery storage systems, such as the Tesla Powerwall, Enphase IQ Battery, or Generac PWRcell, store electricity and discharge it during an outage. A single Powerwall holds 13.5 kWh of usable capacity. An average Texas home uses roughly 40 to 50 kWh per day in summer, so one battery alone covers only a fraction of normal daily load. Running a central AC system through a Texas August night on battery alone is not realistic without solar recharge.
Battery backup shines in a specific scenario: short outages of 12 to 24 hours, or in combination with rooftop solar that continues generating during daylight hours. For a coastal storm that may last seven to ten days with heavy cloud cover and no grid power, a battery-only system is not sufficient for whole-home use, though it can power essentials such as medical devices, lighting, and phone charging.
Installed costs for a single battery unit range from $10,000 to $15,000 including the inverter and installation. Paired solar adds $15,000 to $30,000 depending on system size.
Practical Storm Prep Steps Before Hurricane Season
Audit the current electricity plan now, not after a named storm is in the Gulf. Check whether the plan has a bill-credit cliff, because a post-hurricane month with lower consumption could produce a counterintuitively high bill. Choose My Power's plan comparison tool shows the all-in rate at multiple usage levels so the cliff is visible before signing.
Contact CenterPoint at 713-207-2222 or 800-332-7143, or through its online outage center to apply for Critical Care or Chronic Condition Residential Customer status at the service address, a designation a physician must submit on the PUC-approved form to the TDU. Registration provides advance notice of planned outages but does not guarantee priority restoration during storms, so keep an independent backup power plan for life-sustaining equipment.
If purchasing a generator, buy it before June 1, the start of Atlantic hurricane season. Post-storm demand causes immediate retail shortages and price spikes. Store fuel in properly rated containers and treat it with a stabilizer if it will sit for more than 30 days.
Finally, check the REP contract for any force majeure or outage credit language. Some plans specify conditions under which credits are issued; most do not. Knowing that in advance sets accurate expectations and removes a source of post-storm frustration.