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Leases
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2024
Leases [Abstract]  
Leases
(19) Leases

In 2021, Houston Electric entered into a temporary short-term lease and long-term leases for temporary generation. The short-term lease agreement expired on December 31, 2022. Effective January 1, 2023, all temporary generation assets were leased under the long-term lease agreement. Expenses associated with the short-term lease, including carrying costs, are deferred to a regulatory asset and totaled $89 million and $100 million as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively.

The long-term lease agreement includes up to 505 MW of TEEEF, all of which was delivered as of December 31, 2022, triggering lease commencement at delivery, with an initial term ending in 2029 for all TEEEF leases. The total cash payments under the long-term lease totaled $664 million, with the final $485 million paid in 2022. Houston Electric derecognized the finance lease liability when the extinguishment criteria in Topic 405 - Liabilities was achieved. Per the terms of the agreement, lease payments are due and made in full by Houston Electric upon taking possession of the asset, relieving substantially all of the associated finance lease liability at that time. The remaining finance lease liability associated with the commenced long-term TEEEF agreement was not significant as of December 31, 2024 and 2023 and relates to removal costs that will be incurred at the end of the lease term. As of December 31, 2024, Houston Electric had secured a first lien on the assets leased under the prepayment agreement, except for assets with lease payments totaling $79 million, which is being held in an escrow account, not controlled by Houston Electric, and the funds will be released when a first lien can be secured by Houston Electric. Expenses associated with the long-term lease, including variable costs associated with the operation and maintenance of the temporary generation assets, depreciation expense on the right of use asset and carrying costs, are deferred to a regulatory asset as a recoverable cost under the 2021 Texas legislation and totaled $158 million and $124 million as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. For further discussion of the regulatory impacts, see Note 7.
The components of lease cost, included in Operation and maintenance expense on the Registrants’ respective Statements of Consolidated Income, are as follows for the periods presented:

Year Ended December 31,
202420232022
CenterPoint EnergyHouston
Electric		CERCCenterPoint EnergyHouston
Electric		CERCCenterPoint EnergyHouston
Electric		CERC
(in millions)
Operating lease cost$6 $3 $2 $6 $3 $2 $6 $1 $2 
Short-term lease cost12 11 — 31 30 — 167 166 1 
Total lease cost (1)
$18 $14 $2 $37 $33 $2 $173 $167 $3 

(1) CenterPoint Energy and Houston Electric defer finance lease costs for TEEEF to Regulatory assets for recovery rather than to Depreciation and Amortization in the Statements of Consolidated Income.

The components of lease income were as follows for the periods presented:

Year Ended December 31,
202420232022
CenterPoint EnergyHouston
Electric		CERCCenterPoint EnergyHouston
Electric		CERCCenterPoint EnergyHouston
Electric		CERC
(in millions)
Operating lease income$7 $— $5 $6 $1 $4 $5 $1 $3 
Variable lease income1 — — 2 — — 2 — — 
Total lease income$8 $— $5 $8 $1 $4 $7 $1 $3 

Supplemental balance sheet information related to leases was as follows for the periods presented:
December 31, 2024December 31, 2023
CenterPoint EnergyHouston
Electric		CERCCenterPoint EnergyHouston
Electric		CERC
(in millions)
Assets:
Operating ROU assets (1)$27 $5 $15 $13 $6 $4 
Finance ROU assets (2)430 430 — 526 526 — 
Total leased assets$457 $435 $15 $539 $532 $4 
Liabilities:
Current operating lease liability (3)$3 $1 $1 $3 $1 $1 
Non-current operating lease liability (4)25 3 14 10 5 3 
Total leased liabilities (5)$28 $4 $15 $13 $6 $4 

(1)Included in Other assets in the Registrants’ respective Consolidated Balance Sheets, net of accumulated amortization.
(2)Included in Property, Plant and Equipment in the Registrants’ respective Consolidated Balance Sheets, net of accumulated amortization.
(3)Included in Current other liabilities in the Registrants’ respective Consolidated Balance Sheets.
(4)Included in Other non-current liabilities in the Registrants’ respective Consolidated Balance Sheets.
(5)Finance lease liabilities were not material as of December 31, 2024 or 2023.

As of December 31, 2024 and 2023, the weighted-average remaining lease term and weighted-average discount rate for the Registrants’ finance and operating leases were as follows:
December 31, 2024December 31, 2023
CenterPoint EnergyHouston
Electric		CERCCenterPoint EnergyHouston
Electric		CERC
Weighted-average remaining lease term (in years) - operating leases17.72.920.64.73.93.1
Weighted-average discount rate - operating leases4.92 %4.11 %5.03 %4.13 %4.09 %3.60 %
Weighted-average remaining lease term (in years) - finance leases4.54.5— 5.55.5— 
Weighted-average discount rate - finance leases3.60 %3.60 %— 3.60 %3.60 %— 

As of December 31, 2024, finance lease liabilities were not significant to the Registrants. As of December 31, 2024, maturities of operating lease liabilities were as follows:
CenterPoint
 Energy		Houston
 Electric		CERC
(in millions)
2025$4 $2 $2 
20264 1 2 
20273 1 1 
20282 — 1 
20292 — 1 
Thereafter30 — 19 
Total lease payments45 4 26 
Less: Interest17 — 11 
Present value of lease liabilities$28 $4 $15 

As of December 31, 2024, future minimum finance lease payments to be received were not significant to the Registrants. As of December 31, 2024, maturities of undiscounted operating lease payments to be received were as follows:
CenterPoint
 Energy		Houston
 Electric		CERC
(in millions)
2025$9 $1 $6 
20269 — 6 
20278 — 7 
20284 — 2 
20291 — — 
Thereafter1 — — 
Total lease payments to be received$32 $1 $21 

Other information related to leases is as follows for the periods presented:

Year Ended December 31,
202420232022
CenterPoint EnergyHouston
Electric		CERCCenterPoint EnergyHouston
Electric		CERCCenterPoint EnergyHouston
Electric		CERC
(in millions)
Operating cash flows from operating leases included in the measurement of lease liabilities$5 $2 $2 $5 $2 $2 $6 $1 $2 
Financing cash flows from finance leases included in the measurement of lease liabilities— — — — — — 485 485 — 

See Note 17 for information on ROU assets obtained in exchange for operating lease liabilities.