As of Monday at 11 AM, DETEC is reporting approximately 1,600 members without power.  We have fared very well with outages due to fallen trees or downed lines.  Of these outages approximately 800 are in the Newton/Jasper area and are close to being repaired.  The remaining are in Nacogdoches and are experiencing the "blackouts," which will continue for the Nacogdoches area.

Rolling Blackouts?  What are they and what can you do?
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is asking consumers and businesses to reduce their electricity use as much as possible. ERCOT determines how much is necessary to reduce the demand on the system, and then they tell the entities that own the transmission and distribution wires that they need to reduce the overall demand on the system by that number of megawatts.  These outages will sporadically happen and last for 30 minutes or less at a time.

It is important to note, that DETEC has no control over these rotating power outages.  This is an unprecedented event in which the entire state and beyond is experiencing below freezing temperatures causing massive energy loads. We ask that you wait approximately 30 minutes after your power goes out to report your outage.  If you power is restored within 30 minutes, your outage was likely a rotating power outage.

At this time, only our members in North and West Nacogdoches will be affected as they are within the ERCOT grid.

The DETEC service is unique in that only a small portion of our system is within the ERCOT grid unlike the majority of Texas. All other members served by DETEC are within the SPP and MISO grid.

If you do experience an outage, we ask that you switch off your heating units and wait 10-15 minutes after power is restored to turn them back on.  This will help reduce high loads impacting the system as we reenergize.  It is expected that eventually all will experience these rotating power outages.  Please make all efforts now to reduce load.

Recommended measures include:

  *   Reducing heaters to 68 degrees
  *   Turning off or unplugging nonessential appliances
  *   Avoiding the use of large appliances
  *   Minimizing the use of electric lights
  *   Closing shades or blinds to better insulate windows