Filed under the state’s Distribution Cost Recovery Factor rules, the request would increase the company’s distribution-related revenue requirement by 60.7 percent,

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CenterPoint Electric wants to collect an additional $108.1 million from its Texas customers through an interim rate request the company has filed with state regulators.

Filed Feb. 27 under the state’s Distribution Cost Recovery Factor rules, of “DCRF,” the request would increase the company’s distribution-related revenue requirement by 60.7 percent, bringing it to $286.2 million. DCRF rules allow utility companies to seek relatively quick recovery for distribution-related capital expenditures between more comprehensive rate cases. This is the third DCRF filing from the Houston-based utility company since its last comprehensive rate case in 2024, under Doc. #56211.

CenterPoint bases its new request on claimed capital expenditures from Jan. 1, 2024, through Dec. 31, 2025. To fund the increase, CenterPoint proposes a new DCRF monthly charge of $.005053 per kilowatt hour — or approximately $5.05 per 1,000 kWh of use. By comparison, the previously approved DCRF resulted in a $3.20 charge per 1,000 kWh for residential customers.

The DCRF revenue increase also would come on top of CenterPoint’s consistent revenue and spending growth over the years — including the more than 3 percent increase in overall net income from 2024 to 2025. CenterPoint says it needs to collect more money to keep up with system growth, to pay for resiliency and reliability upgrades, and to finance interconnection investments.

The PUC will consider this latest DCRF request in the coming months. City groups, including the Gulf Coast Coalition of Cities, are expected to intervene in the proceeding on behalf of ratepayer and municipal interests.

Find more information on the PUC website, under Doc. #59424.

— R.A. Dyer