By Ann de Rouffignac
OGJ Online
HOUSTON, June 11 -- Enron Corp., El Paso Corp., and Coral Energy, an affiliate of Royal Dutch/Shell, had to switch to backup generators to keep trading operations and computers functioning during Houston's torrential weekend rains.
A tropical storm that dumped up to 30 in. of rain in 24 hr in parts of Houston knocked out power to some downtown office towers that house many of the nation's largest energy companies.
But the companies switched to backup generators to maintain trading floor operations. The torrential rains isolated the downtown business district and flooded basements of many skyscrapers where circuits for electrical service that serve the buildings are located. Hospitals and banks in downtown Houston were not able to switch to generators when basements flooded so quickly switching equipment failed before generators could be mobilized.
Reliant Energy HL&P, a unit of Reliant Energy Inc., said its generation and transmission service was not the problem.
"All of our service is hot and ready to go," said Leticia Lowe, spokesperson for Reliant HL&P. "But the building basements where the electrical network of transformers and circuits for the buildings flooded."
Property owners must pump the water out so the utility can restore service. Including a underground parking lot owned by the city of Houston, some reports estimated as much as 87 million gallons of water flooded into underground parking lots during the storm.
Despite widespread flooding in the city and surrounding areas, Reliant HL&P said there were few electricity outages. As of Monday morning, only 500-1,000 customers, mostly in the downtown areas, and in another business district Greenway Plaza, were without power, Lowe said.
Enron Corp. suffered from "flooding" in its basement and "electrical problems" on Saturday, said Vance Myer, spokesman for Enron. "We are open for business today."
El Paso lost power to a building where its trading and marketing floor is housed downtown.
"The circuit between us and HL&P's service was knocked out. We went to battery backup power until the generators kicked on," said Mel Scott, spokesman for El Paso. "The trading floor didn't miss a beat."
But El Paso's other three office buildings located just outside downtown are not in operation because flooded basements knocked out power or telecommunications.
Coral's trading floor and offices in downtown Houston had to switch to backup generators because of basement flooding. The generators functioned until power was restored Monday, said Coral spokesman Jimmy Fox.
Dynegy Inc.'s downtown headquarters didn't suffer an outage or experience flooding in its basement sparing the trading floor from electrical outages, said Steve Stengel, spokesman for Dynegy. Reliant Energy was also spared flooding at its downtown headquarters.
Entergy/Koch LP, a joint venture between Entergy Corp., New Orleans, and Koch Industries Inc., escaped power problems because of its building design. Telecommunications and electrical circuits and switching gear are located in the garage. But the parking garage for its building not far from downtown has a street level flat entrance. The basement was not flooded like other nearby office buildings that have slanted ramps down into parking garages, explained Mary Beth Jarvis, spokesperson for Wichita, Kan.-based Koch.
"They act as streams straight into the basement," said Jarvis. "We really dodged a bullet."
Duke Energy Inc. also reported no flooding problems at its trading floor just west of downtown. Reliant's Lowe said company officials discussed the possibility of spearheading an emergency downtown task force to discuss emergency preparedness and design issues with buildings owners.
Some downtown energy companies including Shell Oil Co., requested only essential personnel report to work after Houston Mayor Lee Brown asked for business cooperation while downtown recovers from the flood waters. Pumping is expected to continue through at least Tuesday in some locations.
