Track real-time power outages in your Houston neighborhood
A new mobile app promises to solve power outage tracking problems that plagued Houston residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, when some resorted to checking the Whataburger app to determine if their neighborhoods had power.
A new mobile app promises to solve power outage tracking problems that plagued Houston residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, when some resorted to checking the Whataburger app to determine if their neighborhoods had power.
The KPRC 2 Investigates team has uncovered the ongoing electricity reliability challenges. Houston residents experienced the highest frequency of power outages among major U.S. cities in August, with some neighborhoods suffering up to 18 times more outages than the national average.
The app, called Ting, provides real-time, neighborhood-level power outage information - a critical improvement over traditional utility tracking system. This comes after CenterPoint Energy’s outage tracker failed during the hurricane recovery period, leading more than 5 million people to download the Whataburger app as an impromptu solution for checking neighborhood power status.
“It is the first and only app that is going to give you real time, hyperlocal, neighborhood data,” said Bob Marshall, CEO of Whisker Labs. “Literally within seconds of a power outage in your neighborhood, you can get notified that there’s an outage, then you’re going to get notified when power is restored, and it’s completely free for everybody.”
The system relies on data from over a million sensors installed in homes and businesses nationwide. Residents can access the outage information through the app without needing to install a sensor in their own property.
The launch addresses a critical infrastructure need highlighted during Hurricane Beryl, when families were forced to find creative ways to determine whether it was safe to return to their evacuated homes.
The app aims to provide a more reliable alternative to both utility company trackers and unofficial workarounds like the Whataburger app method.
In the last 14 months CenterPoint Energy has made significant infrastructure improvements, including installing over 32,000 stronger storm-resilient poles and undergrounding more than 400 miles of power lines. CenterPoint Energy also has an outage tracker map.
Find electric outage hot spots in the Houston area
The KPRC 2 Investigates team also used Ting data to create a map showing electric outage hot spots in the Houston area.
You can see how your zip code is doing here.
