233 Different Power Outages Worked by FEC, Contractors During Storm

Crews from Fayette Electric Cooperative were finally seeing “the light at the end of the tunnel” on Friday when the sun came out and the temperatures began rising above the freezing mark. The brutal weather caused weather related power outages for members of Fayette Electric prompting FEC’s line crews, four contractor crews and employees to work around the clock until power was restored to all of the members on Friday afternoon at 2:45 p.m.

The unprecedented winter weather that arrived on February 14 was unlike anything the cooperative had ever experienced. Because of the record-setting freezing weather, the demand for electricity in Texas was greater than what could be produced at power plants. On February 15, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the electric grid for the majority of Texas issued a mandatory directive order to reduce the load demand throughout Texas causing rolling outages. This was a direct result of so many power generating facilities going down due to the cold weather that the demand far exceeded the supply. Not implementing rolling outages would have led the ERCOT grid to completely shut down. The rolling outages lasted until Thursday afternoon when ERCOT announced that operations were back to normal.

During the extreme weather, four FEC crews and four contractor crews worked on 233 outages. The outages were primarily caused by downed power lines that broke from the weight of ice on them, and trees, heavy laden with ice that fell on distribution lines requiring the removal of the trees and the repair of downed power lines. The weight of ice on tree limbs caused them to fall on power lines, also resulting in power outages.

“Rotating outages began early Monday morning and continued through Thursday for members of the cooperative. FEC had no control over the load reduction requirements, the areas impacted or the length of the outage. Unfortunately, some areas experienced more outages than others. The areas that serve critical infrastructure and emergency services were not impacted,” said FEC General Manager Gary Don Nietsche.

Nietsche added, “I am so proud of our crews and contractor crews, who braved the sleet, snow and record-cold temperatures and worked as swiftly and safely as possible around the clock rebuilding lines and trimming trees until the power was restored to our members. We also had a dedicated group of employees answering phones, dispatching, and communicating power outage updates to our members 24/7.”

High Bills Coming

“The bill that FEC members will receive on March 1 will contain the energy consumption from January 23 through February 23. Bills are expected to be higher due to the increased energy consumption used by members to help keep their homes warm during the extremely cold temperatures we had,” said FEC Customer Service Supervisor Christine Roensch.

Fayette Electric Cooperative would like to take this opportunity to thank all of their members for their patience and their conservation efforts during this historic weather event.