Oncor Crews Continue to Forge Ahead

2008-04-12 13:37:38 -

- Oncor Communications Megan Wright, 972-791-6200 Oncor crews are just beginning the third day of storm restoration, and they continue to make progress to restore power to everybody impacted by Thursday morning's major storm. Outages in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area have been reduced to less than 14,000 customers without service, down from the original 250,000 at the height of the storm.

Many of the 4,500 field service professionals will concentrate their efforts to replace downed power poles and transformers in Ft. Worth area backyards. Much of the work continues to involve the time-consuming tasks of hand-digging, manually setting poles, tree trimming and other electrical equipment repairs.

"We appreciate the patience of those still without power, as we close in on getting everyone's power back on," said Rob Trimble, president and chief operating officer. "With the redeployment of crews that are completing work in the Dallas area, we remain optimistic that we will have the restoration completed late today."

Early this morning Oncor crews, consisting of employees and contractors, remain committed to safety as they logged more than 136,000 work-hours without an incident. "Safety is our top priority, especially when we cannot use mechanized equipment in certain areas," said Trimble.

Oncor is a regulated electric distribution and transmission business that uses superior asset management skills to provide reliable electricity delivery to consumers. Oncor operates the largest distribution and transmission system in Texas, providing power to 3 million electric delivery points over more than 102,000 miles of distribution and 14,000 miles of transmission lines. While Oncor is a subsidiary of EFH, Oncor is a separate entity that reports to a separate board that is comprised of a majority of independent directors.

Less than 14,000 Customers in Tarrant County