Greater Houston · Storm-Ready Power
Standby Generator Installation in Greater Houston
When CenterPoint goes down — Beryl, the May derecho, Winter Storm Uri — your home keeps its power. We connect Houston-area homeowners with a vetted local installer for a free, no-pressure quote.
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Vetted & licensed
One trusted local installer — no call-center lists.
Storm-tested
Built for hurricanes, grid failures & multi-day outages.
Greater Houston
Local permitting, local crews, local accountability.
Fast response
Real quotes, no pressure, no obligation.
The grid problem
Houston has its own reasons to keep the lights on
No city in America has been handed a clearer case for backup power in the last few years. Houston sits on the isolated ERCOT grid, behind a CenterPoint network that keeps failing when it’s needed most — and the storms keep coming.
In February 2021, Winter Storm Uri collapsed the ERCOT grid and left millions of Texans freezing in the dark for days. Three years later, Hurricane Beryl knocked out power to about 2.7 million CenterPoint customers — many for more than a week, in brutal July heat — and the May 2024 derecho had already blacked out much of the city weeks earlier. Trust in the utility has never been lower.
For a home with someone on medical equipment, a refrigerator full of food, or just a family trying to sleep when it’s 95° at midnight, “a week without power” isn’t an inconvenience — it’s an emergency. A permanently installed standby generator changes the math: it detects the outage and restores power automatically, usually within seconds, and runs for as long as CenterPoint takes to come back. No cords, no gas-station lines, no hauling a portable through the storm.
Beryl came ashore as a Category 1 — not even a monster storm — yet it knocked out power to roughly 2.7 million CenterPoint customers, many for over a week, during a deadly summer heat wave. It became the event that pushed Houston’s grid reliability into a statewide scandal.
2.7M
CenterPoint customers without power after Beryl
A week+
Restoration time in the hardest-hit neighborhoods
ERCOT
Texas’s own grid — no neighbors to borrow power from
Service area
Standby generator installation across Greater Houston
Searching “generator installation near me” in the Houston area? We connect homeowners with a vetted local installer from the city out through the suburbs — each with its own county permitting, storm history, and local cost range. The time to lock in a quote is before hurricane season, not during the next outage.
Harris County
Houston
Whole-home backup power for the heart of the metro.
Fort Bend County
Katy
Standby installs for the fast-growing west-side suburbs.
Fort Bend County
Sugar Land
Reliable backup power across Fort Bend County.
Montgomery County
The Woodlands
Storm-ready power for the wooded north metro.
Harris County
Cypress
Whole-home standby for the northwest suburbs.
Brazoria County
Pearland
Backup power for the booming south side.
Harris County
Spring
Dependable standby installs north of the city.
Montgomery County
Conroe
Lake-country backup power in Montgomery County.
Harris County
Kingwood
Flood-smart standby power for the Livable Forest.
Galveston County
League City
Coastal-grade backup power for the Bay Area.
The process
What a professional install actually involves
A standby system is a permitted electrical and gas project on an engineered pad — not a weekend DIY. Here’s how it goes with a vetted Houston-area installer.
- 01
Load assessment & sizing
A licensed installer walks your panel, asks which circuits you have to keep alive, and runs the numbers on your air conditioning — then sizes the unit to your actual home, not a rule of thumb.
- 02
Permits & the pad
They pull the city or county electrical and gas permits, clear any MUD or HOA requirements, and set the generator on a pad — raised above the flood elevation where your lot calls for it.
- 03
Set, wire & fuel
The unit is positioned to code clearances, wired to an automatic transfer switch at your panel, and tied into your CenterPoint natural-gas line or a propane tank by licensed trades.
- 04
Commission & inspect
It’s started, tested under load, set to exercise itself weekly, and signed off by the inspector. Then it just waits — and takes over on its own the next time the grid drops.
Sizing
How big a generator does a Houston home need?
Standby units are rated in kilowatts (kW), and bigger isn’t automatically better — the right size covers what you actually run without paying for headroom you’ll never use. Your installer pins it down with a load calculation, but here’s the shape of it. Want a quick estimate first? Try the sizing calculator.
14–18 kW
Managed essentials
Smart load management keeps the must-haves alive — refrigerator, a zone of AC, internet, medical equipment — letting a smaller, lower-cost unit cover more of the house.
22–26 kW
Whole-home
Most popular here
The Houston favorite: enough to carry central air plus the rest of the house, so a week without CenterPoint never turns into a week without air conditioning.
27 kW +
Large & liquid-cooled
For the big suburban homes out in Katy, Sugar Land, and The Woodlands — two or three AC systems and everything on at once — liquid-cooled engines built to run for days.
In Houston, the air conditioner decides the size. A compressor pulls a heavy surge the instant it starts — several times its running draw — so a unit sized only for steady loads can stall when the AC kicks on at 2 a.m. A real load calculation, not a rule of thumb, is what keeps it online.
Fuel
Natural gas or propane?
Standby generators here burn one of two fuels. Both are dependable — the right pick comes down to what’s already running to your house.
Natural gas
Set-and-forget · no refills
- Runs straight off your CenterPoint Energy gas line — no tank and nothing to run dry during a long outage.
- The unit draws fuel on demand; you never schedule a delivery.
- Best where a gas main already reaches the street — common across most of the metro.
- Trade-off: a touch less output than propane on the same engine, and it depends on the gas line staying pressurized.
Propane (LP)
Self-contained · stored on-site
- Fed from a tank on your own property, above or below ground, with no reliance on a gas main.
- Burns a little hotter — often slightly more power than the same generator on natural gas.
- The go-to for rural Montgomery County, far-west Katy, and anywhere the gas line hasn’t reached.
- Trade-off: the tank holds a finite supply, so size it for several days and plan a top-off ahead of the longest storms.
Permitting & code
What it takes to pass inspection in greater Houston
Every standby install is permitted, and the rules shift from the city line to the county to your MUD — which is exactly why you want a local installer who pulls these permits every week.
City vs. county permitting
Inside the City of Houston you pull city permits; out in unincorporated Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Brazoria or Galveston County the process differs. A local installer knows which desk to go to.
MUDs, HOAs & deed restrictions
Much of greater Houston sits inside MUD districts, and master-planned communities add HOA approval and screening rules that shape exactly where the generator can go.
Flood-zone elevation
After Harvey, placement matters: in flood-prone areas like Kingwood and parts of Katy the unit goes on a raised pad above the Base Flood Elevation, so the storm can’t drown the very thing you bought for it.
Licensed trades
Texas requires a licensed electrician (TECL) for the transfer switch and panel work, plus permitted gas work for the fuel hookup — both inspected before the system is signed off.
Every city page breaks down the specifics for that county. Find yours above ↑ or read the permitting-by-county guide.
Learn more
Standby generator guides
Plain-spoken answers before you commit — sizing, fuel, install day, and local permitting.
- Do I Need a Standby Generator in Greater Houston?
- How to Size a Home Standby Generator in Houston
- Natural Gas vs. Propane Standby Generators in Houston
- What Happens on Generator Install Day in Greater Houston
- Standby Generator Permitting Across Greater Houston Counties
- Keeping Your Standby Generator Storm-Ready in Houston
- How an Automatic Transfer Switch Runs Your Generator
- How to Choose the Best Whole-House Generator for Houston
Standby generator FAQ
Why did so many Houston homeowners add a generator after Beryl?
Because Beryl made the risk impossible to ignore. In July 2024 the storm knocked out power to roughly 2.7 million CenterPoint customers — many for a week or more — in dangerous summer heat, just a few years after Winter Storm Uri took the whole ERCOT grid down in 2021. A permanently installed standby generator is the one fix that doesn’t depend on the grid coming back: it senses the outage and restores power on its own, usually within seconds.
Will it run my whole house, including the AC?
Yes — that’s what whole-home sizing (around 22–26 kW for most Houston homes) is for. Smaller managed units keep your essentials plus a zone of AC running by shedding lower-priority loads. In Houston heat and humidity, keeping the air conditioning on is the entire point, so it’s central to the sizing conversation — especially for the larger homes in the suburbs.
Natural gas or propane in greater Houston?
If CenterPoint Energy runs natural gas to your street — common across much of the metro — it’s usually the simplest: no tank, no refills, even through a multi-day outage. Out in rural Montgomery County, far Katy, and other spots without a gas main, propane is the answer. Your installer recommends based on what’s already at your home.
Do I need a permit, and what about flood zones?
Yes. A standby install needs electrical and gas/mechanical permits — through the City of Houston or your county — and the work must be done by a licensed Texas electrician. In flood-prone areas the unit is set on a raised pad above the Base Flood Elevation. A local installer handles the permits and the elevation as part of the job.
Who actually shows up — are you the installer?
No, and we say so plainly. Space City Generators is a Greater Houston resource that connects you with one vetted, licensed local installer. We’re not a contractor and we don’t sell your details to a list of callers — your request goes to a single trusted local pro.
Be ready before the next CenterPoint outage
Get a free, no-pressure quote from a vetted Houston-area installer — or call now to talk through sizing, fuel, and timing.