CenterPoint Energy Leverages AI for Grid Resilience Against Extreme Weather

CenterPoint Energy Announces Collaboration with Technosylva to Advance Resilience and Monitor System Assets for Extreme Weather Events - CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP)

Collaboration Leverages Technosylva's Advanced AI and Machine Learning to Strengthen Resilience and Prepare for Extreme Weather HOUSTON, Oct. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- CenterPoint Energy, a leading electric and natural gas utility serving Texas, Indiana, Ohio, Louisiana, Minnesota and Mississippi, today announced an agreement to work with Technosylva, a global leader in wildfire science and extreme weather risk mitigation solutions, to utilize predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to better prepare CenterPoint's assets in extreme weather prone regions. The two companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) enabling CenterPoint to leverage Technosylva's leading extreme weather risk predictive analytics and mitigation solutions throughout CenterPoint's entire network and will focus on an all-weather hazards approach. The collaboration is part of CenterPoint's $21 billion commitment over the next five years to electric and natural gas resilience initiatives, including improved reliability and system modernization. "Our defining goal is to build the most resilient coastal grid in the country that can better withstand the extreme weather that we continue to see impact our nation, and I believe that our work with Technosylva will help us achieve this ambition," said Jason Wells, President and CEO of CenterPoint. "Technosylva's world class, predictive analytics and mitigation platform for extreme weather events and wildfires, combined with their market-leading software and AI and Machine Learning-based tools, will provide us with more timely and accurate insights into threats to our infrastructure. This is a key step toward achieving our goal of becoming a national leader in utility resilience and emergency preparedness and response." Technosylva's risk monitoring platform integrates high-resolution modeling, predictive analytics, and real-time data to offer actionable insights into extreme weather events and threats to network assets. The company's software performs hundreds of millions of extreme weather simulations daily to generate current and near-term risk forecasts available in real time, allowing its customers to predict and identify areas of concern and proactive steps to reduce outages. "As utilities work to harden the power grid for increasingly common extreme weather events, it's critical they have the most accurate and timely intelligence possible to plan, prepare and protect their networks to be able to keep the lights on for their customers," said Bryan Spear, CEO of Technosylva. "We are thrilled to work with the CenterPoint Energy leadership team as they work to continue to deliver resilient, reliable, safe, and sustainable energy to their customers." About CenterPoint Energy, Inc. As the only investor-owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. CNP is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas. With approximately 9,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com. About Technosylva Technosylva is the global leader in wildfire science and technology, operationalizing wildfire science to provide actionable risk analysis and mitigation solutions. Its wildfire risk mitigation platform is utilized by fire agencies and electric utilities worldwide to manage over 20,000 wildfire incidents annually. Technosylva's market-leading software, enhanced by AI and machine learning capabilities, provides real-time and predictive insights into developing environmental risks. Founded in 1997, Technosylva has offices in La Jolla, CA, León, Spain, and Calgary, Canada. For more information, contact Communications Media.Relations@CenterPointEnergy.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/centerpoint-energy-announces-collaboration-with-technosylva-to-advance-resilience-and-monitor-system-assets-for-extreme-weather-events-302270732.html SOURCE CenterPoint Energy Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

CenterPoint Energy and Neara Announce Post-Hurricane Beryl Collaboration to Advance Electric Resiliency Across Greater Houston Region By Investing.com

Mobilizing AI capabilities and digital modeling technologies will help optimize safety, reliability and resilience while reducing the impact on CenterPoint's customers , /PRNewswire/ -- As part of the company's ambition to become the most resilient coastal electric grid in the country, CenterPoint Energy (NYSE: NYSE:CNP) today announced it has reached an agreement with Neara, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered infrastructure modeling platform for engineering-grade simulations and analytics, to deploy Neara's AI capabilities across CenterPoint's 5,000-square-mile service area. CenterPoint will supplement its existing systems with Neara's technology to focus its investments strategically and cost-effectively and to continue to advance safety, reliability and resilience for the benefit of its approximately 2.8 million customers. Neara's AI-enabled simulation and analytics platform are expected to help CenterPoint reduce customer outages and accelerate restoration efforts across its system. "Leveraging technology and AI to deliver better outcomes for our customers and communities is a significant part of the commitment we made after Hurricane Beryl," said CenterPoint President and Chief Executive Officer . "By simulating the potential impact of severe weather events on our infrastructure and customers, Neara's platform and tools will inform our plans and actions before, during and after major weather events to help reduce the impact and duration of power outages. Understanding how weather scenarios and their risks could affect our operations will position us to be several steps ahead on our preparedness and response." , Senior Vice President and Managing Director of the , said, "We are thrilled to collaborate with CenterPoint as they lead the charge in addressing today's most existential energy challenges. Our 3D digital modeling technology will help CenterPoint proactively reduce customer outages by simulating severe weather events, such as hurricanes, tropical storms, heat waves and flash floods, and their potential impact on the utility's infrastructure." Neara's technology will also support CenterPoint's ongoing efforts to address higher-risk vegetation along power lines, as well as identify critical equipment upgrades, including pole replacements or reinforcements, quickly and efficiently. Additionally, Neara's predictive technology will help CenterPoint prioritize specific assets and locations where grid hardening improvements will help optimize system-wide benefit. As targeted system upgrades are completed, CenterPoint will be able to quantify performance increases at the individual asset level and forecast, deliver and measure resilience improvements. In late , CenterPoint announced the completion, ahead of schedule, of core resiliency actions as part of the first phase of its Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI), which included a series of targeted immediate actions to improve the resiliency of CenterPoint Houston Electric's grid. The company also announced the boldest series of resiliency actions in its history, including a second phase of GHRI (currently underway from " ) which will include system hardening, strategic undergrounding, self-healing grid technology and further enhancements to the company's outage tracker, as well as a longer-term resilience plan" which will be filed after discussions with stakeholders, elected officials, and customers " of approximately in resiliency investment from 2026 to 2028, potentially doubling its prior planned investment. Forward Looking Statement This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "goal," "intend," "may," "objective," "plan," "potential," "predict," "projection," "should," "target," "will" or other similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, which include statements regarding our resiliency investments, timing, forgoing profits and related matters, are based upon assumptions of management which are believed to be reasonable at the time made and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Any statements in this news release regarding future events that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement contained in this news release speaks only as of the date of this release. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the provided forward-looking information include risks and uncertainties relating to: (1) the impact of pandemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) financial market conditions; (3) general economic conditions; (4) the timing and impact of future regulatory and legislative decisions; and (5) other factors, risks and uncertainties discussed in CenterPoint Energy's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended and CenterPoint's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended and and other reports CenterPoint Energy or its subsidiaries may file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. About CenterPoint Energy As the only investor-owned electric and gas utility based in , CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in , , , , and . With approximately 9,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com. About Neara Neara's AI-assisted predictive modeling software helps infrastructure owners drive critical proactive decisions by conducting precise analyses in hours and days that would otherwise take months or years in the field. Engineering-grade simulation analyses reveal how assets behave in real-world environments during any scenario " empowering better, faster, more cost-effective decisions. The model supports end-to-end network governance, from routine operational decisions to emergency scenarios and major grid-hardening investments " without verification from manual surveys. Neara's technology has modeled >1.5 million square miles of global network territory featuring ~10 million assets, across four continents from to and . Neara's utility customers identify outage risks 9x faster, restore power 3x faster, and save thousands of field visits per year. More information is available at www.neara.com.

CenterPoint Energy and Neara Announce Post-Hurricane Beryl Collaboration to Advance Electric Resiliency Across Greater Houston Region

Mobilizing AI capabilities and digital modeling technologies will help optimize safety, reliability and resilience while reducing the impact on CenterPoint's customers HOUSTON, Oct. 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of the company's ambition to become the most resilient coastal electric grid in the country, CenterPoint Energy (NYSE: CNP) today announced it has reached an agreement with Neara, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered infrastructure modeling platform for engineering-grade simulations and analytics, to deploy Neara's AI capabilities across CenterPoint's 5,000-square-mile Greater Houston service area. CenterPoint will supplement its existing systems with Neara's technology to focus its investments strategically and cost-effectively and to continue to advance safety, reliability and resilience for the benefit of its approximately 2.8 million customers. Neara's AI-enabled simulation and analytics platform are expected to help CenterPoint reduce customer outages and accelerate restoration efforts across its system. "Leveraging technology and AI to deliver better outcomes for our customers and communities is a significant part of the commitment we made after Hurricane Beryl," said CenterPoint President and Chief Executive Officer Jason Wells. "By simulating the potential impact of severe weather events on our infrastructure and customers, Neara's platform and tools will inform our plans and actions before, during and after major weather events to help reduce the impact and duration of power outages. Understanding how weather scenarios and their risks could affect our operations will position us to be several steps ahead on our preparedness and response." Robert Brook, Neara Senior Vice President and Managing Director of the Americas, said, "We are thrilled to collaborate with CenterPoint as they lead the charge in addressing today's most existential energy challenges. Our 3D digital modeling technology will help CenterPoint proactively reduce customer outages by simulating severe weather events, such as hurricanes, tropical storms, heat waves and flash floods, and their potential impact on the utility's infrastructure." Neara's technology will also support CenterPoint's ongoing efforts to address higher-risk vegetation along power lines, as well as identify critical equipment upgrades, including pole replacements or reinforcements, quickly and efficiently. Additionally, Neara's predictive technology will help CenterPoint prioritize specific assets and locations where grid hardening improvements will help optimize system-wide benefit. As targeted system upgrades are completed, CenterPoint will be able to quantify performance increases at the individual asset level and forecast, deliver and measure resilience improvements. In late August 2024, CenterPoint announced the completion, ahead of schedule, of core resiliency actions as part of the first phase of its Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI), which included a series of targeted immediate actions to improve the resiliency of CenterPoint Houston Electric's grid. The company also announced the boldest series of resiliency actions in its history, including a second phase of GHRI (currently underway from September 1, 2024 - June 1, 2025) which will include system hardening, strategic undergrounding, self-healing grid technology and further enhancements to the company's outage tracker, as well as a longer-term resilience plan- which will be filed after discussions with stakeholders, elected officials, and customers - of approximately $5 billion in resiliency investment from 2026 to 2028, potentially doubling its prior planned investment. Forward Looking Statement This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "goal," "intend," "may," "objective," "plan," "potential," "predict," "projection," "should," "target," "will" or other similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, which include statements regarding our resiliency investments, timing, forgoing profits and related matters, are based upon assumptions of management which are believed to be reasonable at the time made and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Any statements in this news release regarding future events that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement contained in this news release speaks only as of the date of this release. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the provided forward-looking information include risks and uncertainties relating to: (1) the impact of pandemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) financial market conditions; (3) general economic conditions; (4) the timing and impact of future regulatory and legislative decisions; and (5) other factors, risks and uncertainties discussed in CenterPoint Energy's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 and CenterPoint's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2024 and June 30, 2024 and other reports CenterPoint Energy or its subsidiaries may file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. About CenterPoint Energy As the only investor-owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas. With approximately 9,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com. About Neara Neara's AI-assisted predictive modeling software helps infrastructure owners drive critical proactive decisions by conducting precise analyses in hours and days that would otherwise take months or years in the field. Engineering-grade simulation analyses reveal how assets behave in real-world environments during any scenario -- empowering better, faster, more cost-effective decisions. The model supports end-to-end network governance, from routine operational decisions to emergency scenarios and major grid-hardening investments -- without verification from manual surveys. Neara's technology has modeled >1.5 million square miles of global network territory featuring ~10 million assets, across four continents from California to Ireland and Australia. Neara's utility customers identify outage risks 9x faster, restore power 3x faster, and save thousands of field visits per year. More information is available at www.neara.com.

CenterPoint Energy and Neara Announce Post-Hurricane Beryl Collaboration to Advance Electric Resiliency Across Greater Houston Region - CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP)

Mobilizing AI capabilities and digital modeling technologies will help optimize safety, reliability and resilience while reducing the impact on CenterPoint's customers HOUSTON, Oct. 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of the company's ambition to become the most resilient coastal electric grid in the country, CenterPoint Energy CNP today announced it has reached an agreement with Neara, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered infrastructure modeling platform for engineering-grade simulations and analytics, to deploy Neara's AI capabilities across CenterPoint's 5,000-square-mile Greater Houston service area. CenterPoint will supplement its existing systems with Neara's technology to focus its investments strategically and cost-effectively and to continue to advance safety, reliability and resilience for the benefit of its approximately 2.8 million customers. Neara's AI-enabled simulation and analytics platform are expected to help CenterPoint reduce customer outages and accelerate restoration efforts across its system. "Leveraging technology and AI to deliver better outcomes for our customers and communities is a significant part of the commitment we made after Hurricane Beryl," said CenterPoint President and Chief Executive Officer Jason Wells. "By simulating the potential impact of severe weather events on our infrastructure and customers, Neara's platform and tools will inform our plans and actions before, during and after major weather events to help reduce the impact and duration of power outages. Understanding how weather scenarios and their risks could affect our operations will position us to be several steps ahead on our preparedness and response." Robert Brook, Neara Senior Vice President and Managing Director of the Americas, said, "We are thrilled to collaborate with CenterPoint as they lead the charge in addressing today's most existential energy challenges. Our 3D digital modeling technology will help CenterPoint proactively reduce customer outages by simulating severe weather events, such as hurricanes, tropical storms, heat waves and flash floods, and their potential impact on the utility's infrastructure." Neara's technology will also support CenterPoint's ongoing efforts to address higher-risk vegetation along power lines, as well as identify critical equipment upgrades, including pole replacements or reinforcements, quickly and efficiently. Additionally, Neara's predictive technology will help CenterPoint prioritize specific assets and locations where grid hardening improvements will help optimize system-wide benefit. As targeted system upgrades are completed, CenterPoint will be able to quantify performance increases at the individual asset level and forecast, deliver and measure resilience improvements. In late August 2024, CenterPoint announced the completion, ahead of schedule, of core resiliency actions as part of the first phase of its Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI), which included a series of targeted immediate actions to improve the resiliency of CenterPoint Houston Electric's grid. The company also announced the boldest series of resiliency actions in its history, including a second phase of GHRI (currently underway from September 1, 2024 - June 1, 2025) which will include system hardening, strategic undergrounding, self-healing grid technology and further enhancements to the company's outage tracker, as well as a longer-term resilience plan- which will be filed after discussions with stakeholders, elected officials, and customers - of approximately $5 billion in resiliency investment from 2026 to 2028, potentially doubling its prior planned investment. Forward Looking Statement This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "goal," "intend," "may," "objective," "plan," "potential," "predict," "projection," "should," "target," "will" or other similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, which include statements regarding our resiliency investments, timing, forgoing profits and related matters, are based upon assumptions of management which are believed to be reasonable at the time made and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Any statements in this news release regarding future events that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement contained in this news release speaks only as of the date of this release. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the provided forward-looking information include risks and uncertainties relating to: (1) the impact of pandemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) financial market conditions; (3) general economic conditions; (4) the timing and impact of future regulatory and legislative decisions; and (5) other factors, risks and uncertainties discussed in CenterPoint Energy's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 and CenterPoint's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2024 and June 30, 2024 and other reports CenterPoint Energy or its subsidiaries may file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. About CenterPoint Energy As the only investor-owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. CNP is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas. With approximately 9,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com. About Neara Neara's AI-assisted predictive modeling software helps infrastructure owners drive critical proactive decisions by conducting precise analyses in hours and days that would otherwise take months or years in the field. Engineering-grade simulation analyses reveal how assets behave in real-world environments during any scenario -- empowering better, faster, more cost-effective decisions. The model supports end-to-end network governance, from routine operational decisions to emergency scenarios and major grid-hardening investments -- without verification from manual surveys. Neara's technology has modeled >1.5 million square miles of global network territory featuring ~10 million assets, across four continents from California to Ireland and Australia. Neara's utility customers identify outage risks 9x faster, restore power 3x faster, and save thousands of field visits per year. More information is available at www.neara.com. Media Contacts CenterPoint Energy Media: media.relations@centerpointenergy.com Investors: Jackie Richert/Ben Vallejo, 713.207.6500 Neara Media: neara@haymaker.co View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/centerpoint-energy-and-neara-announce-post-hurricane-beryl-collaboration-to-advance-electric-resiliency-across-greater-houston-region-302266211.html SOURCE CenterPoint Energy Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

CenterPoint Energy Announces Collaboration with Technosylva to Advance Resilience and Monitor System Assets for Extreme Weather Events By Investing.com

Collaboration Leverages Technosylva's Advanced AI and Machine Learning to Strengthen Resilience and Prepare for Extreme Weather , /PRNewswire/ -- CenterPoint Energy, a leading electric and natural gas utility serving , , , , and , today announced an agreement to work with Technosylva, a global leader in wildfire science and extreme weather risk mitigation solutions, to utilize predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to better prepare CenterPoint's assets in extreme weather prone regions. The two companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) enabling CenterPoint to leverage Technosylva's leading extreme weather risk predictive analytics and mitigation solutions throughout CenterPoint's entire network and will focus on an all-weather hazards approach. The collaboration is part of CenterPoint's commitment over the next five years to electric and natural gas resilience initiatives, including improved reliability and system modernization. "Our defining goal is to build the most resilient coastal grid in the country that can better withstand the extreme weather that we continue to see impact our nation, and I believe that our work with Technosylva will help us achieve this ambition," said , President and CEO of CenterPoint. "Technosylva's world class, predictive analytics and mitigation platform for extreme weather events and wildfires, combined with their market-leading software and AI and Machine Learning-based tools, will provide us with more timely and accurate insights into threats to our infrastructure. This is a key step toward achieving our goal of becoming a national leader in utility resilience and emergency preparedness and response." Technosylva's risk monitoring platform integrates high-resolution modeling, predictive analytics, and real-time data to offer actionable insights into extreme weather events and threats to network assets. The company's software performs hundreds of millions of extreme weather simulations daily to generate current and near-term risk forecasts available in real time, allowing its customers to predict and identify areas of concern and proactive steps to reduce outages. "As utilities work to harden the power grid for increasingly common extreme weather events, it's critical they have the most accurate and timely intelligence possible to plan, prepare and protect their networks to be able to keep the lights on for their customers," said , CEO of Technosylva. "We are thrilled to work with the CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) leadership team as they work to continue to deliver resilient, reliable, safe, and sustainable energy to their customers." About CenterPoint Energy, Inc. As the only investor-owned electric and gas utility based in , CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in , , , , and . With approximately 9,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com. About Technosylva Technosylva is the global leader in wildfire science and technology, operationalizing wildfire science to provide actionable risk analysis and mitigation solutions. Its wildfire risk mitigation platform is utilized by fire agencies and electric utilities worldwide to manage over 20,000 wildfire incidents annually. Technosylva's market-leading software, enhanced by AI and machine learning capabilities, provides real-time and predictive insights into developing environmental risks. Founded in 1997, Technosylva has offices in , , and .