Profile: CenterPoint Energy Inc (CNP.N)
25.16USD
1 Aug 2013
$0.34 (+1.37%)
$24.82
$25.58
$25.60
$24.71
879,518
683,978
$25.60
$18.79
CenterPoint Energy, Inc. is a public utility holding company whose indirect wholly owned subsidiaries include CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, LLC (CenterPoint Houston), which engages in the electric transmission and distribution business in a 5,000-square mile area of the Texas Gulf Coast, which includes the city of Houston, and CenterPoint Energy Resources Corp. (CERC Corp. and, together with its subsidiaries, CERC), which owns and operates natural gas distribution systems in six states. Subsidiaries of CERC Corp. own interstate natural gas pipelines and gas gathering systems and provide ancillary services. A wholly owned subsidiary of CERC Corp. offers variable and fixed-price physical natural gas supplies to commercial and industrial customers and electric and gas utilities. The Company operates in six business segments: Electric Transmission & Distribution, Natural Gas Distribution, Competitive Natural Gas Sales and Services, Interstate Pipelines, Field Services and Other Operations. Effective November 1, 2011, CenterPoint Energy Services, Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, announced that it acquired Asgard Energy, LLC.
Electric Transmission & Distribution
CenterPoint Houston is a transmission and distribution electric utility, which operates wholly within the state of Texas. On behalf of retail electric providers (REPs), CenterPoint Houston delivers electricity from power plants to substations, from one substation to another and to retail electric customers taking power at or above 69 kilovolts (kV) in locations throughout CenterPoint Houston's certificated service territory. CenterPoint Houston constructs and maintains transmission facilities and provides transmission services.
In the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. (ERCOT), end users purchase their electricity directly from certificated REPs. CenterPoint Houston delivers electricity for REPs in its certificated service area by carrying lower-voltage power from the substation to the retail electric customer. CenterPoint Houston's distribution network receives electricity from the transmission grid through power distribution substations and delivers electricity to end users through distribution feeders. CenterPoint Houston's operations include construction and maintenance of distribution facilities, metering services, outage response services and call center operations. CenterPoint Houston provides distribution services under tariffs approved by the Texas Utility Commission.
CenterPoint Houston is a member of ERCOT. ERCOT serves as the regional reliability coordinating council for member electric power systems in of Texas. The ERCOT market includes the State of Texas, other than a portion of the panhandle, portions of the eastern part of the state bordering Arkansas and Louisiana and the area in and around El Paso. CenterPoint Houston's electric transmission business, along with those of other owners of transmission facilities in Texas, supports the operation of ERCOT independent system operator (ERCOT ISO). The transmission business has planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the transmission grid and for the load-serving substations it owns, within its certificated area. CenterPoint Houston participates with the ERCOT ISO and other ERCOT utilities to plan, design, obtain regulatory approval for and construct new transmission lines necessary to increase bulk power transfer capability and to remove existing constraints on the ERCOT transmission grid.
CenterPoint Houston serves Houston/Galveston metropolitan area. As of December 31, 2011, CenterPoint Houston's customers consisted of 86 REPs, which sold electricity to over two million metered customers in CenterPoint Houston's certificated service area, and municipalities, electric cooperatives and other distribution companies located outside CenterPoint Houston's certificated service area. All of CenterPoint Houston's properties are located in Texas. Its properties consist of electric transmission lines and poles, distribution lines, substations, service centers, service wires and meters.
As of December 31, 2011, CenterPoint Houston owned 27,952 pole miles of overhead distribution lines and 3,716 circuit miles of overhead transmission lines, including 391 circuit miles operated at 69,000 volts, 2,109 circuit miles operated at 138,000 volts and 1,216 circuit miles operated at 345,000 volts. As of December 31, 2011, CenterPoint Houston owned 20,781 circuit miles of underground distribution lines and 26 circuit miles of underground transmission lines, including two circuit miles operated at 69,000 volts and 24 circuit miles operated at 138,000 volts. As of December 31, 2011, CenterPoint Houston owned 232 substation sites having a total installed rated transformer capacity of 52,732 megavolt amperes. CenterPoint Houston operates 14 regional service centers located on a total of 291 acres of land. These service centers consist of office buildings, warehouses and repair facilities, which are used in the business of transmitting and distributing electricity.
CenterPoint Houston holds non-exclusive franchises from the incorporated municipalities in its service territory. In exchange for the payment of fees, these franchises give CenterPoint Houston the right to use the streets and public rights-of way of these municipalities to construct, operate and maintain its transmission and distribution system and to use that system to conduct its electric delivery business and for other purposes that the franchises permit.
Natural Gas Distribution
CERC Corp.'s natural gas distribution business (Gas Operations) engages in regulated intrastate natural gas sales to, and natural gas transportation for, approximately 3.3 million residential, commercial and industrial customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas. The metropolitan areas served in each state by Gas Operations are Houston, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Little Rock, Arkansas; Shreveport, Louisiana; Biloxi, Mississippi, and Lawton, Oklahoma. During the year ended December 31, 2011, approximately 41% of Gas Operations' total throughput was to residential customers and approximately 59% was to commercial and industrial customers. Gas Operations also provides unregulated services in Minnesota consisting of heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment and appliance repair, and sales of HVAC, hearth and water heating equipment.
Gas Operations transports its natural gas supplies through intrastate and interstate pipelines, including those owned by its other subsidiaries, under contracts with remaining terms. Gas Operations uses third-party storage services or owned natural gas storage facilities for peak-day requirements. During 2011, Gas Operations owned and operated an underground natural gas storage facility with a capacity of seven billion cubic feet. As of December 31, 2011, it had a working capacity of two billion cubic feet available for use during a normal heating season and a daily withdrawal rate of 50 million cubic feet. It also owns nine propane-air plants with a total production rate of 200,000 dekatherms per day and on-site storage facilities for 12 million gallons of propane. As of December 31, 2011, it owned a liquefied natural gas plant facility with a 12 million-gallon liquefied natural gas storage tank and a production rate of 72,000 dekatherms per day. As of December 31, 2011, gas operations owned approximately 72,000 linear miles of natural gas distribution mains, varying in size from one-half inch to 24 inches in diameter.
Competitive Natural Gas Sales and Services
CERC offers variable and fixed-priced physical natural gas supplies to commercial and industrial customers and electric and gas utilities through CenterPoint Energy Services, Inc. (CES) and its subsidiary, CenterPoint Energy Intrastate Pipelines, LLC (CEIP). During 2011, CES marketed approximately 558 billion cubic feet of natural gas, related energy services and transportation to approximately 14,300 customers in 21 states. CES offers a range of natural gas management services to gas utilities, industrial customers, electric generators, municipalities, educational institutions and hospitals. These services include load forecasting, supply acquisition, daily swing volume management, invoice consolidation, storage asset management, firm and interruptible transportation administration and forward price management. CES also offers a portfolio of physical delivery services and financial products. These customers are served directly, through interconnects with interstate and intrastate pipeline companies, and portably, through its mobile energy solutions business.
In addition to offering natural gas management services, CES procures natural gas and manages and optimizes transportation and storage assets. As of December 31, 2011, CES transported natural gas on 45 interstate and intrastate pipelines within states located throughout the central and eastern United States. As of December 31, 2011, CEIP owned and operated approximately 233 miles of intrastate pipeline in Louisiana and Texas and contracts out approximately 2.3 billion cubic feet of storage at its Pierce Junction facility in Texas under long-term leases. In addition, CES leases transportation capacity of approximately 0.7 billion cubic feet per day on various interstate and intrastate pipelines and approximately 13.2 billion cubic feet of storage to service its shippers and end-users.
Interstate Pipelines
CERC's pipelines business operates interstate natural gas pipelines with gas transmission lines located in Arkansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. CERC's interstate pipeline operations are conducted by two wholly owned subsidiaries, which provide gas transportation and storage services to industrial customers and local distribution companies: CenterPoint Energy Gas Transmission Company, LLC (CEGT) and CenterPoint Energy-Mississippi River Transmission, LLC (MRT). CEGT is an interstate pipeline, which provides natural gas transportation, natural gas storage and pipeline services to customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas and includes the 1.9 billion cubic feet per day pipeline from Carthage, Texas to Perryville, Louisiana, which CEGT operates as a separate line with a fixed fuel rate. MRT is an interstate pipeline, which provides natural gas transportation, natural gas storage and pipeline services to customers in Arkansas, Illinois and Missouri. During 2011, approximately 15% of CEGT and MRT's total operating revenue was attributable to services provided to Gas Operations, an affiliate, and approximately 8% was attributable to services provided to Laclede Gas Company (Laclede), an unaffiliated distribution company, which provides natural gas utility service to the greater St. Louis metropolitan area in Illinois and Missouri. CenterPoint Southeastern Pipelines Holding, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of CERC, owns a 50% interest in Southeast Supply Header, LLC (SESH). SESH owns a one billion cubic feet per day, 274-mile interstate pipeline that runs from the Perryville Hub in Louisiana to Coden, Alabama. A wholly owned, indirect subsidiary of Spectra Energy Corp. owns the remaining 50% interest in SESH.
CERC's interstate pipelines business owns and operates approximately 8,000 miles of natural gas transmission lines located in Arkansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. CERC's interstate pipeline business also owns and operates six natural gas storage fields with a combined daily deliverability of approximately 1.3 billion cubic feet and a combined working gas capacity of approximately 59 billion cubic feet. CERC's interstate pipeline business also owns a 10% interest in the Bistineau storage facility located in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, with the remaining interest owned and operated by Gulf South Pipeline Company, LP. CERC's interstate pipeline business' storage capacity in the Bistineau facility is eight billion cubic feet of working gas with 100 million cubic feet per day of deliverability. Most storage operations are in north Louisiana and Oklahoma.
Field Services
CERC's field services business operates gas gathering, treating and processing facilities and also provides operating and technical services and remote data monitoring and communication services. CERC's field services operations are conducted by a wholly owned subsidiary, CenterPoint Energy Field Services, LLC (CEFS). CEFS provides natural gas gathering and processing services for natural gas fields in the Mid-continent region of the United States, which interconnect with CEGT's and MRT's pipelines, as well as other interstate and intrastate pipelines. As of December 31, 2011, CEFS gathered an average of approximately 2.6 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas. CEFS, through its ServiceStar operating division, provides remote data monitoring and communications services to affiliates and third parties.
CenterPoint Energy Gas Processing Company, a wholly owned, indirect subsidiary of CERC, owns a 50% general partnership interest in Waskom Gas Processing Company (Waskom). Waskom owns a natural gas processing plant and natural gas gathering assets located in East Texas. The plant is capable of processing approximately 320 million cubic feet per day of natural gas. CERC's field services business owns and operates approximately 3,900 miles of gathering lines and processing plants that collect, treat and process natural gas from three regions located in producing fields in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.
Company Address
CenterPoint Energy Inc
1111 Louisiana Street
HOUSTON TX 77002
P: +1713.2071111
F: +1713.2073169
Company Web Links
| Name | Compensation |
|---|---|
Milton Carroll |
1,045,950 |
David McClanahan |
7,902,840 |
Gary Whitlock |
2,436,420 |
Scott Prochazka |
-- |
Scott Rozzell |
2,336,570 |

