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).