Oncor defends decisions about who gets power and who doesn’t stay in North Texas
Many of the people who have been without power for the longest time want to know why the burden is not being shared. FOX 4 asked Oncor for a better explanation.
DALLAS – Energy is slowly returning to more northern Texans, but there were still 450,000 customers without electricity as of Wednesday afternoon across the region.
More than 2.6 million people across the state are still without power and it is unclear when the power will be fully restored.
Everything comes from the generation of energy. ERCOT states that it is not even able to obtain the necessary water for the operation of some of the plants.
But that hasn’t stopped people from asking why more cannot be done to spread forced conservation. Days in the dark and northern Texans are doing what they can to keep warm.
ERCOT continues to demand a reduction in electricity distribution. In northern Texas, this is Oncor’s job.
“We cannot supply energy if there is no energy to supply,” said Oncor spokesman Kerri Dunn.
MOST: ERCOT says winter is optional, power will not be fully restored until at least Thursday
Dunn says the power restoration that some saw was actually due to a reduction in demand overnight and not an increase in generation.
“If you have power now, enjoy it. Charge your phones,” she said. “Try to warm up. Eat some, but it’s still a very likely possibility that you will lose energy.”
Power generation is not something that Oncor can control.
“We don’t generate energy. We supply energy,” said Dunn.
Oncor also decides who to deliver to. The continuous interruptions that people have experienced are due to the fact that service to a particular home or business has been identified as non-critical.
This left customers frozen with the feeling that they had reached a dead end.
People are wondering why Oncor is not getting more creative, like leaving the lights on in hospitals, but alternating outages for homes and non-essential businesses that share the same part of the network.
LINK: Oncor outage map
“You have entire neighborhoods that are outside. You have people who are afraid of dying in their homes and yet I have buildings in the center that are lit up all night in empty offices,” said reporter Steve Noviello. “Why isn’t Oncor taking the unprecedented step of saying that we are going to turn off the energy of people who are wasting it?”
“This is totally separate,” said Dunn. “The direction here is that we unload the cargo. And the cargo cannot be unloaded at the individual address.”
No, it only happens when you don’t pay your bill.
“The complaint we are receiving is that our viewers think that you are forcing conservation on residents and not businesses. How do you respond?” Noviello asked.
“It is very likely that it is because they have their own backup generation keeping the light on,” said Dunn. “They are not exempt from what we are going through now.”
Another question that was asked is whether people will have to pay these Oncor delivery fees, since Oncor did not deliver.
Oncor said the fee charged to people is based on the energy they provide. Therefore, if the lights are off, your Oncor rate will be lower.
RELATED: Texas Governor Greg Abbott urges state lawmakers to investigate ERCOT