I know we’ve had lots of storms this summer, but honestly, how many times can a transformer get hit? Even when no lightning has flashed in the sky, I’ve come home to flashing clocks all over my house — our multiple alarm clocks (my husband and I are not early risers by nature), the oven, the coffee maker and the typically forgotten sprinkler system.
This has happened an inordinate number of times, to my way of thinking, over the last year or two. I can only suspect that the electricity infrastructure in our neighbourhood has not been adequately updated or maintained which is the reason why a few of my neighbours and I have already begun to find how to switch suppliers and get green energy. I have no proof of the manipulations being made by the old suppliers, just the anecdotal outages we all suffer. (And I also took a completely unscientific survey employing a very small sample — about seven neighbors — whose answers seemed to verify my frustrations.)
I decided to call the media relations group at Oncor Delivery Service, which is owned by TXU Corp. As I understand it, Oncor is the portion of TXU’s corporate structure that owns and maintains the electricity infrastructure in this region. I made several calls over several days and eventually spoke with Chris Schein. Chris is really good at his job. I feel certain that I answered many more of his questions than he answered of mine.
I asked questions like: Do you know where Lake Highlands is? Do you agree that we are experiencing more frequent outages now than we were 10 years ago? Does TXU keep statistics of power outages by service area? What is Oncor doing to improve its customer service? What is the best way for a customer to lodge a concern?
The good news is that Oncor is familiar with Lake Highlands. Of course, this should come as no surprise since the company has been restoring service in our area fairly often of late. Chris also seemed convinced (and tried to convince me) that TXU’s non-storm outage numbers are “less” (or better) today than they were 10 years ago (TXU’s total number of outages declined 7 percent from 2003 to 2006, Chris told me, from 79.1 minutes per customer to 74.2 minutes), and he said that most storm outages are due to tree limbs.
And the best way to express concern about outages? Contact your electricity provider – one of electric companies in houston, he said. I called several electricity providers. They were as surprised about this suggestion as I was.
I get the impression that customer service may not be a top priority with the Public Utility Commission of Texas. In its January 2007 report to the 80th Texas Legislature, Scope of Competition in Electric Markets in Texas, only one paragraph and two charts, taking up one and one half pages of a 122-page report, dealt with customer protection and complaint issues. If customer service is not a priority with the regulatory agency, it is not likely to be a priority with the regulated industry.
Two other states that have passed legislation to restructure electricity retail access in their states, as Texas has, are New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has a six-page strategic plan dealing with performance goals, reliability and reasonable rates. The Pennsylvania Power and Light (PPL) Electric Utilities conducts quarterly surveys of reliability, price and value, image, billing and customer service — and has received 12 awards from J.D. Powers and Associates for customer satisfaction.
Chris said he was surprised to be hearing from me, “the media,” because Oncor hadn’t noticed any complaints from the Lake Highlands area. He said that, normally, when a service issue is ongoing, complaints will come in from customers, electric providers, community leaders and employees who live in the area. He also said that TXU is unaware of outages unless they are reported. So perhaps our voices need to grow louder.
Hopefully these numbers will help: to report an outage, call 1.888.313.4747; to report an ongoing service issue, call TXU 24-hour Residential Support Customer Service, 1.800.242.9113; Allyn Giles, Oncor Dallas local area manager, 214.486.2074; District 107 State Rep. Allen Vaught, 214.370.8305; or Public Utility Commission of Texas, 1.888.182.8477.
I think we had better work to resolve our issues sooner rather than later. If the sale of TXU goes through, our fate will only worsen in the hands of a private equity firm trying to recoup billions of dollars it just spent on some Texas utility.
