State Power Emergency Impacts Oncor Customers - Weather, Plant Outages Led to Supply Exceeding Demand

Wednesday, February, 2, 2011 - Oncor, the electric transmission and distribution company serving most of North Texas, is in the process of temporarily turning off power across its service territory to compensate for unexpected generation loss in the areas of the state served by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.  Oncor, which does not own any generation, along with other transmission and distribution utilities across Texas are taking direction from ERCOT to manage the situation. By temporarily turning off power in a controlled manner, ERCOT is attempting to prevent uncontrolled outages from occurring across the state.

While the length of the outage for each individual customer can vary in length, Oncor is working very hard to ensure that no outage lasts longer than 30 minutes.  If a customer's outage lasts longer than 30 minutes, they should call 888.313.4747 because they may be experiencing an outage caused by weather or other reasons.  

ERCOT, which manages the electricity grid across most of the state, made the demand for controlled outages across the state after some generating plants unexpectedly went off line shortly before 6 a.m. Wednesday which, when coupled with the significant electricity demand from the severe cold weather, created an electricity shortage.  

At this time, it is unclear how long the rolling outages will last.  ERCOT is closely monitoring both supply and demand for the electricity in most of the state.
Media
Megan Wright
877-426-1616