Oct 28 (Reuters) - Electric and gas utility CenterPoint

Energy ( CNP ) on Monday reported third-quarter profit that

missed Wall Street estimates, hurt by higher maintenance costs

and lower revenue from its electric segment due to Hurricane

Beryl.

The company said it has appointed Don Daigler to lead its

emergency preparedness and response efforts, following criticism

for its power restoration initiatives after Beryl.

Beryl had caused significant damage to CenterPoint electric

subsidiary Houston Electric's delivery system after its landfall

in July, knocking out power for nearly 2.3 million CenterPoint

customers in Texas.

Restaurants in and around Houston had filed a lawsuit

seeking more than $100 million from CenterPoint, alleging

incompetence and negligence in the company's efforts to restore

power.

CenterPoint's third-quarter operations and maintenance

costs, which includes expenses related to storm restoration

efforts and grid upgrades, rose nearly 20% to $775 million.

The company's total quarterly electric revenue declined 1.4%

to $1.24 billion, partly owing to outages related to Beryl.

It posted an adjusted profit of 31 cents per share for the

third quarter, missing analysts' average estimates of 32 cents,

according to data compiled by LSEG.

Houston Electric said as of Sept. 30, it estimates the

total costs of restoring the electric delivery facilities to be

about $1.1 billion, excluding carrying costs.