NTTA construction

NTTA's construction of the Sam Rayburn Tollway/Dallas North Tollway interchange is triggering a series of overlapping frontage road and tollway closures beginning 9 PM Friday night, February 25 , continuing throughout the weekend, February 26-27, until early Monday morning, February 28.  The details of each closure are described below:
 
Southbound Dallas Parkway will be closed between the SH 121 frontage roads starting at 9 PM Friday, February 25, and will remain closed throughout the weekend.  The frontage road is expected to reopen by 5 AM Monday morning, February 28.  During the closure, southbound traffic on Dallas Parkway will not be able to proceed straight onto Dallas Parkway or turn left onto northeast-bound SH 121.  Also, southwest-bound traffic on SH 121 will not be able to turn left onto southbound Dallas Parkway.  This means that traffic will not be able to use this intersection to enter the southbound Dallas North Tollway from the north or from the east.  Detour signs will be posted that divert traffic west to Legacy Drive which will take them south to the Dallas North Tollway.
 
The southwest-bound Sam Rayburn Tollway will be closed at the Dallas North Tollway starting at 9 PM Friday, February 25, and will remain closed throughout the weekend.  The highway is expected to reopen at 5 AM Monday morning, February 28.  During this highway closure, all traffic on the southwest-bound Sam Rayburn Tollway will be diverted onto the SH 121 frontage road prior to the Dallas North Tollway and will be able to re-enter the highway near Legacy Drive.  Detour signs will be posted.         
 
The northeast-bound SH 121 frontage road will be closed between Legacy Drive and Dallas Parkway starting at 11:45 PM Friday night, February 25.  The frontage road is expected to reopen by 5 AM Saturday morning, February 26.  During this closure, traffic on the northeast-bound Sam Rayburn Tollway will not be able to exit to the Dallas North Tollway.  Detour signs will be posted that divert traffic onto Legacy Drive which takes them south to the Dallas North Tollway.
 
The northeast-bound Sam Rayburn Tollway will be closed at the Dallas North Tollway starting at 11:45 PM Friday night, February 25.  The highway is expected to reopen by 5 AM Saturday morning, February 26.  During this highway closure, all traffic on the northeast-bound Sam Rayburn Tollway will be diverted onto the SH 121 frontage road prior to the Dallas North Tollway and then must use Legacy Drive and Headquarters Drive to continue eastward before being be able to re-enter the highway east of Parkwood Boulevard.  Detour signs will be posted.
 
The NTTA has provided a map of these closures and the detour routes at the following link:
http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1103529694561-186/SRT_Seg5_Feb25-28+Closure+Map.pdf
 
Motorists are urged to use caution in the construction zone.
 
 

Frisco Ready to respond to water line breaks

FRISCO CREWS READY TO RESPOND TO WATER LINE BREAKS CAUSED BY FREEZING TEMPERATURES; HOURS OF OPERATION/CANCELLATIONS FOR SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5 (*as of 7:30 p.m. Friday)

(February 4, 2011) The City of Frisco advises residents city crews are available to respond to water line breaks caused by the inclement weather, as necessary.  Residents may call 972-292-6010 for help to ‘shut off’

water to their homes.

“As temperatures rise and pipes begin to thaw, we anticipate some folks will experience burst pipes,”

said Fire Chief Mack Borchardt, who also serves as the City of Frisco Emergency Management Coordinator. “Water line breaks can cause a considerable amount of property damage.  We’re prepared to help limit damage by turning off the water to homes.”

The Frisco Athletic Center (FAC) will resume its regularly scheduled weekend hours.  The FAC will be open 6:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. on Sunday.  The Senior Center @ Frisco Square will also be open during its regularly scheduled hours, which are 11:30 a.m. – 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.  The Senior Center is closed on Sunday.

The Frisco Public Library also resumes its regular hours of 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Saturday and 1 – 5 p.m. on Sunday.

The Frisco Heritage Museum will remain closed over the weekend.

Municipal Court will open Monday, February 7 during regularly scheduled hours; however, individuals have until Thursday, February 10 to file documents, make payments or reschedule court dates missed February 1 – 4, due to weather. Municipal Court will be closed Tuesday – Wednesday, February 8 – 9, for required, annual training.

The City of Frisco’s Trick-A-Trout Kid Fish, scheduled for tomorrow, is postponed until next Saturday, February 12.  Icy road conditions and hazardous driving conditions for fisheries delivery trucks forced Parks and Recreation to postpone the event.

We appreciate your understanding and patience during these extreme weather conditions.

Press Release from Oncor

Conservation Vital to Averting More Power Problems
Wednesday's rotating outages, while difficult, helped to prevent a more severe blackout.

DALLAS (Feb. 2, 2011) — Oncor, the electric transmission and distribution company serving most of North Texas, is asking its customers to conserve energy in the next few days in order to help prevent more power problems for the Texas grid.

Since before 6 a.m. Wednesday morning, Oncor was one of multiple electricity transmission and distribution companies that initiated rotating, planned outages in an effort to reduce demand as required by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Extreme winter weather caused increased electricity demand and several power plants to go offline making demand for electricity exceed supply.

"There is a delicate balance between power supply and demand that, if compromised, can cause massive, uncontrolled blackouts that could take days to restore," Oncor Chief Operating Officer Charles Jenkins said. "The rotating outages ERCOT asked utilities to initiate today were necessary to prevent a catastrophic event. We will continue to work with ERCOT to restore this critical supply/demand balance."

ERCOT and electric companies like Oncor in the ERCOT region, which covers most of the state, plan for emergency situations like these. The load shed event, while difficult for customers, did prevent a statewide catastrophe.

As of 2 p.m., ERCOT suspended the rotating outages but said that more were possible if the grid operator found it necessary to meet the state's electric demand. The response to this unprecedented statewide situation resulted in the activation of a rotating outage plan that lasted longer and impacted more customers than ever experienced by Oncor.

Oncor is asking customers to join the effort by conserving energy. You can help by turning off any unnecessary lights or appliances, saving activities like running dishwashers and doing the laundry for another day, and trying to minimize the use of inefficient heating sources like space heaters. If safely possible, lower the thermostat to 68 or lower and keep warm with blankets (again, not space heaters).

State urges consumers to reduce energy consumption, if possible

Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is urging all consumers who
can reduce their energy consumption to do so at this time.

Severe weather has led to the loss of more than 50
generation units - more than 7,000 MW, and additional units are continuing
to trip offline due to the extreme cold temperatures.

ERCOT
Grid Operations has asked the utilities/transmission providers to
implement rotating outages until the load is reduced through
conservation and restoration of generation units.

Conservation is very critical at this time to reduce the load on the
system. Rotating outages are controlled, temporary interruptions of
electrical
service initiated by each utility when supplies of reserve power are
exhausted. Without this safety valve, generators would overload and
begin shutting down to avoid damage, risking a domino effect of a
state-wide outage.

As of noon, 2000 MW of the rotating outages had been restored, and 2000 MW
remains under rotating outages.
One megawatt is roughly enough to power 200 homes in extreme temperatures.

Mid-morning update:
Last night around midnight, the ERCOT grid began experiencing numerous
forced outages of generation due to the cold weather. As of 9 am, more
than 7,000 MW of capacity was still out of service or not producing at its
expected level.

Rotating outages were implemented around 5:30 a.m. this morning to shed
4000 MW of load. The rotating outages are continuing as this time,
although the amount has been reduced to about 3000 MW.

We expect the rolling outages to continue until a sufficient amount of
generation is back online. We are continuing the appeal for energy
conservation.
Further updates will be provided when additional information is available 

Ercot

Noon Update:
CONSERVATION IS STILL CRITICAL AT THIS TIME

ERCOT is urging all consumers who can reduce their energy consumption to
do so at this time. Severe weather has led to the loss of more than 50
generation units - more than 7,000 MW, and additional units are
continuing to trip offline due to the extreme cold temperatures. ERCOT
Grid Operations has asked the utilities/transmission providers to
implement rotating outages until the load is reduced through
conservation and restoration of generation units. Conservation is very
critical at this time to reduce the load on the system.

Rotating outages are controlled, temporary interruptions of electrical
service initiated by each utility when supplies of reserve power are
exhausted. Without this safety valve, generators would overload and
begin shutting down to avoid damage, risking a domino effect of a
state-wide outage.

As of noon, 2000 MW of the rotating outages had been restored, and 2000
MW remains under rotating outages.

One megawatt is roughly enough to power 200 homes in extreme
temperatures.

Mid-morning update:

Last night around midnight, the ERCOT grid began experiencing numerous
forced outages of generation due to the cold weather. As of 9 am, more
than 7,000 MW of capacity was still out of service or not producing at
its expected level.

Rotating outages were implemented around 5:30 a.m. this morning to shed
4000 MW of load. The rotating outages are continuing as this time,
although the amount has been reduced to about 3000 MW.

We expect the rolling outages to continue until a sufficient amount of
generation is back online. We are continuing the appeal for energy
conservation.

Further updates will be provided when additional information is
available.\

Rotating outages

Feb. 2, 2011, Austin -- The Electric Reliability Council of Texas

(ERCOT) has instructed utilities to begin rotating outages to compensate
for a generation shortage due to numerous plant trips that occurred
because of the extreme weather.

Rotating outages are controlled, temporary interruptions of electric
service, typically lasting 10-45 minutes per neighborhood.  The locations
and durations are determined by the local utilities.  Critical need
customers such as hospitals and nursing homes are generally not included.

It is not known at this time how long the need for rotating outages will
last.

Consumers and businesses are urged to reduce their electricity use to the
lowest level possible, including these steps:

*       Limit electricity usage to only that consumption which is
absolutely necessary. Turn off all unnecessary lights, appliances, and
electronic equipment.

*       Businesses should minimize the use of electric lighting and
electricity-consuming equipment as much as possible.

*       Large consumers of electricity should consider shutting down or
reducing non-essential production processes.

See more conservation tips at "Powerful Advice," Public Utility Commission
of Texas:
www.puc.state.tx.us./ocp/conserve>

BACKGROUND

A Power Emergency indicates that the regional electric grid operator, the
Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), has instructed utilities to
implement rotating outages to reduce load.

Rotating outages are controlled, temporary interruptions of electrical
service initiated by each utility when supplies of reserve power are
exhausted.  Without this safety valve, generators would overload and begin
shutting down to avoid damage, risking a domino effect of a region-wide
outage.

Rotating outages primarily affect residential neighborhoods and small
businesses and do not typically include critical-need customers such as
hospitals and nursing homes.

The outages are limited to 10-45 minutes before being rotated to a
different neighborhood.  Some customers may experience longer outages if
power surges cause equipment failure during the restoration process.
Customers can minimize power surges by turning off appliances, lights and
other equipment, except for one task light to determine when power has
been restored.

ERCOT REGION

The ERCOT Region includes Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio,
Austin, Corpus Christi, Abilene and the Rio Grande Valley.  It does not
include the El Paso area, the Texas Panhandle, Northeast Texas (Longview,
Marshall and Texarkana), and Southeast Texas (Beaumont, Port Arthur, and
the Woodlands).  Region map:
http://www.ercot.com/news/mediakit/maps/index.html

HELPFUL CONTACTS

For Utility Information
Check your electric bill to identify your utility company or transmission
provider.

Investor-Owned Utilities (Transmission & Distribution) American Electric
Power
877-373-4858

CenterPoint Energy
800-752-8036

Oncor
888-313-4747

Sharyland Utilities
956-668-9551

Texas-New Mexico Power          888-866-7456

Outside ERCOT
Entergy-Texas
800-968-8243

Community-Owned Electric Utilities
Texas Public Power Association, http://www.tppa.com/

Utility Directories
http://www.puc.state.tx.us/electric/directories/index.cfm

Electric Industry Links
http://www.puc.state.tx.us/electric/links.cfm

ERCOT Market Participants
http://www.ercot.com/mktparticipants/index.html

Conservation Tips
http://www.puc.state.tx.us/ocp/conserve/index.cfm

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)
manages the flow of electric power to approximately 22 million Texas
customers - representing 85 percent of the state's electric load and 75
percent of the Texas land area.  As the Independent System Operator for
the region, ERCOT schedules power on an electric grid that connects 40,000
miles of transmission lines and more than 550 generation units.
ERCOT also manages financial settlement for the competitive wholesale
bulk-power market and administers customer switching for 6.5 million
Texans in competitive choice areas.