CenterPoint's customer growth shows Houston's 'resilience' (Galveston, Liberty: 2014, apartment complexes, co-op)

[Jack Lance]

So it seems Houston's population growth has not slowed due to the oil price bust. 14,000 new utility connections every 3 months works out to 56,000 per year. If we assume that there are about 3 or 4 people per hook up ( including spouses and children) then subtract for business hook ups, that works out to about 150,000 to 200,000 new arrivals a year, wow !

"CenterPoint, in releasing its quarterly earnings Friday, said that it has gained about 55,000 metered customers over the past year, an increase of 2.4 percent, and expects to keep adding new customers at rate of about 2 percent through at least the end of the year. That's about the same pace that CenterPoint's customer base was growing in 2014, when the energy sector was booming, executives said.

While CenterPoint's customer count may not directly correlate with local economic growth, analysts said, it still suggests that Houston's efforts to diversity its economy beyond oil and gas are succeeding.
Certainly, the oil bust has taken its toll here, bringing job growth almost to a halt, but the region has also showed a resilience not seen in previous energy downturns."

CenterPoint's customer growth shows Houston's 'resilience' - Houston Chronicle

[oespinoza83]

What is a new connection considered? An actual new physical house+line built and connected? Because that would be the only way to know for sure it was people coming to Houston.

Someone who rents at an apartment complex, then buys a house and has to get CP service (and become a new customer) isn't new to the city. Is this accounted for? If someone (say O&G) leaves town because of a job loss and the house is rented out to someone that never had CP, is that new account "a new Houston resident?"

I'm not sure how they go about determining all of these differences, but I do think its naive to relate the number of new utility connections to the number of new arrivals into town. Not sure why people are trying to prop up this city in various aspects during this O&G downtime. Is it the 80's all over again? No. It isn't that bad. But it def isn't as well off as some are trying to portray it to be.

[ma23peas]

I would compare that to the number of disconnects.

[baggiegenes]

That number represents net new meters installed (roughly). So totall new meters minus old meters replaced or taken out (such as tearing down a building). What can still skew the number are things like excess construction inventory. If a bunch of new apartment complexes are built but are mostly vacant, those will still show as new customers to CNP because the complex owner has had a meter installed and is probably paying some base usage to keep the place rentable, but no new people have moved to Houston to fill that space yet.

Unmanned industrial space can also skew those numbers. A storage facility that just holds equipment and has some exterior security lights and a camera system but no employees is also a new customer as it would be a new meter for that building. But, that is going to be a relatively small number. Even if the CNP customer count isn't an exact count of new households it is a strongly correlated trend to population growth.

[Jack Lance]

Also remember that CenterPoint does not serve the entire Houston MSA, Entergy serves Chambers, Liberty, Montgomery and Waller counties. So those CNP connects only take into account new connects in Harris, Galveston, Fort Bend, Brazoria and other counties to the southwest and west that may be included in the Greater Houston MSA.








Entergy Texas - Service Area

[ilikeme]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

Also remember that CenterPoint does not serve the entire Houston MSA, Entergy serves Chambers, Liberty, Montgomery and Waller counties. So those CNP connects only take into account new connects in Harris, Galveston, Fort Bend, Brazoria and other counties to the southwest and west that may be included in the Greater Houston MSA.








Entergy Texas - Service Area

There are also areas served by TNMP in parts of Galveston and Brazoroa county.

[right]

are they double dipping on the electrical and gas hookups and classifying each hookup at the same property as a new customer?

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by right

are they double dipping on the electrical and gas hookups and classifying each hookup at the same property as a new customer?

"CenterPoint, in releasing its quarterly earnings Friday, said that it has gained about 55,000 metered customers over the past year, an increase of 2.4 percent, and expects to keep adding new customers at rate of about 2 percent through at least the end of the year. That's about the same pace that CenterPoint's customer base was growing in 2014, when the energy sector was booming, executives said."

One would have to assume that an equal number of connections as a previous year would indicate a similar rate of population growth.

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

Also remember that CenterPoint does not serve the entire Houston MSA, Entergy serves Chambers, Liberty, Montgomery and Waller counties. So those CNP connects only take into account new connects in Harris, Galveston, Fort Bend, Brazoria and other counties to the southwest and west that may be included in the Greater Houston MSA.


Entergy Texas - Service Area

Don't forget about the Sam Houston Electric Co-op or "SHECO".

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by TheMoreYouKnow

Don't forget about the Sam Houston Electric Co-op or "SHECO".

OK I won't