A regulated transmission and electricity distribution company with its headquarters in Dallas, this is no other company than Oncor Electric Delivery Company. Oncor is the fifth-largest utility company in the United States and the largest electricity and distribution company in Texas. It is owned by two investors which are Sempra Energy the majority owner and the Texas Transmission Investment which is the Minority owner. It has a lot of disinterested directors who are the Board of Directors managing the company. They serve people from the West, East, and North-Central Texas. Let us know about ‘Oncor Power Outage’.
Oncor uses higher management skills to give reliable electricity to people. It gives power to more than 3.8 million businesses and homes in Texas. Its transmission and distribution lines are over 139,000 miles in Texas.
Oncor Power Outage
It’s inevitable not to have a power outage. This is because several factors can affect power transmission. Oncor as stated above is a company that deals with the distribution and transmission of electricity in Texas. Below are some of the way Oncor respond to Outages.
Whenever an outage occurs, Oncor ensures to restore the power as soon as possible, the progress of the outage can be tracked on their storm center map which shows the area where the outage has happened, the time it will take to restore the power, the cause of the outage and the number of customers that are affected in the area. Most times there is no need for a report for Oncor to know there is a power outage, this is if their system detects it.
The Major way Oncor gets aware of a power outage is by reporting they get from people. To report an outage of your power, you can do so by
Using the online reporting tool
Calling their number at 888.313.4747
Signing up for the My Oncor Alerts service ( to register for this service you’d text REG to 66267, this enables you to receive power outage notifications and updates on your phone. You can also set the method of contact either through mail, text, or voice alert). To send an alert using this method you’d text OUT to 66267 (ONCOR).
How Does Oncor Distribute Electricity To Its consumers?
Oncor makes use of transmission and distribution power lines in distributing electricity to its consumers from the power plant to their homes. The transmission system ensures the connection of the power plants to the substation using high voltage lines. The transmission then continues from the substations to various homes and businesses making use of a low voltage line. Overhead wires and underground cables are majorly used for the distribution.
How Is The Restoration Process Of Oncor?
Once an outage is reported to Oncor, their main goal is to restore power quickly and safely to their consumers, thus making them mobilize all their available crews and equipment to the area immediately. If the outage is more serious than expected they ask for help from other utilities in their mutual assistance program. They make use of a systematic process to first check out what the problem is and then restore the power. Their use of improved technology helps them know where to go and what to repair first.
How are Outages Prioritized by Oncor?
In a case where there are a lot of outages in a neighborhood or a state, there is a level of prioritization by Oncor on which power outage to restore first.
The most prioritized power outage is the Transmission line outage. It will affect thousands of consumers since this is the basis of the electricity distribution and will affect an entire area and businesses.
When there is a power outage in Public and critical care facilities such as hospitals, fire stations, etc. This is the next prioritized outage since they impact lives.
The next priority is the outage that happens on a distribution system that gives power to homes and businesses which is affecting hundreds of consumers.
The last on the list is the power outage that occurs at a single residence or a business.
Major Causes of Power Outage
There are several reasons for power outages such as storms, accidents, and many more. Another main cause that has been identified as one of the Top causes of the power outage is the Trees. Trees that are grown near power lines are a serious safety risk and thus need to be pruned or removed from the location.
You shouldn’t prune a tree that is within 10 feet of a power line as this has caused injury and death for some people who climb or prune trees near the power line, the tree branches that touch the power line do conduct electricity and this can be dangerous.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Oncor is the largest electricity distributor in Texas and has put in place a system that allows people to report their power outage immediately and also systems that allow them to respond to those situations as soon as possible and also as safe as possible.
