February 20, 2021 - Yesterday and overnight, crews have restored power to over 7,000 members across the service area. Above freezing temperatures, accessible roads and more crews have contributed to this progress. Again, restoration is expected to be a slow process due to outages being scattered across our 8 county system vs isolated to specific areas. This coupled with yesterday being the first day we could really make some ground, estimates of restoration for each area are just not available yet. If you have an alternate location with power that you can retreat to, our safest suggestion is to take family and friends up on their hospitality until we can get your power restored. If you are in a serious emergency situation, always call 911. Officials have established 211 if you need to seek necessary resources or a shelter.
Currently DETEC is reporting 15,099 members without power.
- Nacogdoches Co: 5,107
- Newton Co: 2
- Panola Co: 194
- Rusk Co: 1
- Sabine Co: 1220
- San Augustine Co: 1,387
- Shelby Co: 7,188
Several members have expressed concern of not seeing trucks in their area yet. Please know that crews are working all areas. In order to restore power to your home, crews must first restore power to the transmission lines that feed our substations. After the transmission lines are repaired, we focus on any substation damage. DETEC owns and operates 35 substations. At this time, all transmission and substations are restored. Next we repair the distribution lines. These lines currently have much damage as trees and limbs have fallen from the weight of the ice. While we maintain a 20 foot right-of-way to the best of our ability, our 80-100 foot tall Pine Trees will hit the lines when they fall. It is simply the nature of our beautiful area. Currently we have hundreds of reports of trees and limbs on the distribution lines. The DETEC service area includes over 7,000 miles of distribution lines. After a distribution line is repaired, we can then work on the service line, transformer and fuse to your home. Currently we have thousands of reports of these service lines on the ground. This process to restore power to your home is happening and if you are not seeing a crew in your area, they are still working on the distribution line to get power to your home. We are not making excuses, but no amount of prep work to the lines by your local utility could have been done to prevent damage from this statewide historical weather event. Ice damage and the load issues from the state’s power grid are unrelated issues at this point.
In the office, we have been working diligently to resolve phone issues so that we make take your outage. Most members are able to report their outage, but many have reported issues with either receiving busy signals, dropped calls or a message detailing that we are unable to report your outage at this time due to high call volume. Busy signals are a result of all lines being utilized with calls, this is a issue we cannot resolve, please continue calling until you get through. Dropped calls is being investigated and we will continue to work with the telephone network provider to resolve this. Our automated system is designed to take your outage by automation if you correctly enter your telephone number and meter number to the location. We do know that this system was not working properly. As a result, much testing has been done and the system should be working as it should now. If you do not know your account information and you select “no,” the system will attempt to connect you with a live agent. Due to call volume, you may not be connected. Please locate your meter number before calling. This number is located on your bill or you may find it by looking at the meter at your location. The meter number is the six digit number located after DETEC on your meter. If you have had problems in the last few days getting through on the 1-800-392-5986 outage line, please try again. Today, we also have all local Member Service representatives to take your call. We do not have as many local representatives as we do within our contracted call center, so you may experience holds. Our local number is 936-229-4000. This line will be open until 5 PM today. After 5 PM, this line rolls over to 1-800-392-5986. Every day, around the clock, representatives are working to take your call.
