From Hurricane Beryl to the May derecho to Winter Storm Uri, Houston knows exactly what a week without power feels like. VirtuGrid installs a whole-home backup battery at no upfront cost — so the next time the CenterPoint grid goes down, your home simply doesn't.
This isn't fear-mongering — it's recent memory. In the last few years alone:
More than two million CenterPoint homes and businesses lost power — many for a week or longer, in peak Gulf heat and humidity.
Straight-line winds tore through Harris County with almost no warning, knocking out power to roughly a million customers in a single afternoon.
Days of blackouts in freezing temperatures across greater Houston — frozen pipes, spoiled food, and families sleeping in their cars for warmth.
Every one of those outages had one thing in common: homes with backup batteries stayed on. That's not a luxury anymore in Houston — it's the difference between riding out a storm in comfort and starting over after it.
VirtuGrid serves homeowners across the greater Houston area — inside the CenterPoint Energy service territory, where the retail electricity market is deregulated and you choose who supplies your power.
VirtuGrid supplies and installs a whole-home backup battery at no upfront cost. We own it, monitor it, and maintain it for the life of the program — nothing for you to manage.
While the grid is up, your battery works alongside thousands of others across Texas to support it. That's the revenue that funds your free battery and your lower rate.
The instant the grid drops, the energy reserved in your battery is yours and your home switches over automatically. The outage everyone else feels never reaches you.
You also get a low, all-in electricity rate that's typically below what you're paying now — many households save around 30% versus their prior bill.*
*Savings compared to typical local utility pricing. Actual savings vary by utility, plan, household usage, and energy-market conditions, and are not guaranteed.
There's no purchase price and no install bill — VirtuGrid covers the equipment and installation, and we own and maintain the system. In exchange, you take your electricity through our program for the term of the agreement. The full trade is spelled out in plain English on our main page.
Fair question — Houston outages don't always end in a day. On battery alone, most homes run 18–36 hours on a full charge. But we're a solutions-based company, so our systems include a small solar component that recharges the batteries while the grid is down. That's what turns backup power from a Band-Aid into a solution.
Generally you'll need to own your home in the CenterPoint Energy service area and have a suitable spot for the battery. The fastest way to find out is the 30-second check — no credit check, no obligation.
Four quick questions — about 30 seconds, no credit check, no obligation.
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