Grayson Collin News
Fathers day weekend and the weekend following, a group of storms of mass destruction came across both Grayson and Collin counties on back to back weekends destroying approximately 80 poles and leaving almost 40,000 members without power.
This group of storms brought heavy rotation, 100 mph of straight-line winds and thousands of lightning strikes. Thus leaving mutilated vegetation, broken poles, poles on fire, broken and downed power lines and countless pieces of debris across the Grayson-Collin Electric service area. The storm caused us to have to rebuild several sections of line – each taking several hours to repair and rebuild. We received mutual aid from two electric cooperatives in the area, seven linemen from United Electric Cooperative as well as four linemen from CoServ. We called in 5 contract linemen crews composed of five to six linemen each from both Techline and Linetec. We also had crews from Vaquero Underground Services who assist us daily. Apex Tree trimming service sent 15 tree trimming crews to help clear roads and lines of vegetations so the linemen could work behind them to restore power. The tree trimming crews were composed of three-to-six-man crews. Although we had prepared to our best abilities and have tree trimming crews who work daily throughout our service area – Mother Nature left the two counties mangled in destruction. Crews worked around the clock for nearly 65 hours working to restore power. As we look back on what CEO/General Manager David McGinnis is calling one of the worst storms in his career, we understand the frustration of being without service for many hours – but believe we serve some of the best members in the State and we will continue to provide the best possible service at the least possible cost. As always, we are here for you, 24 hours and 7 days a week – 365 days a year – we strive to serve you, our members – to our best ability.
Recent News
Information for reporting your outage on the App
We have learned that when our members go to report an outage on our app, they have run into an issue. Members have received a message stating “There are no other account available on your service to report an outage.” This response happens because your meter has already notified our office that your home is without power. If you have any other accounts, like a barn or another building, that is currently not listed in the outage, it will allow you to select and report those meters as “out”. We want to assure you that though this can be a frustrating response – it just means that our office is aware of your outage, allowing us to work towards restoration as quickly and safely as possible. We have someone at our office 24/7 all year round and will be here to field your calls and help anyway we can.
903-482-7100
Concern from Members regarding high bills
Cold Weather Creates Higher Usage Resulting in Higher Bills
Recently Grayson-Collin Electric Cooperative has had an influx of concern from members about high bills. We understand that thus far we have encountered a mild winter – however, the cold snap we experienced caused a large spike in usage.
The graphs below show how cold temperatures can significantly increase energy usage. The red and blue lines are the day’s high and low temperatures. As an Arctic blast arrived on Jan. 14, these member’s DAILY usage (as seen in the green, orange and blue usage bars) nearly doubled or tripled their average usage. On average all these members had normal energy usage – until the cold weather arrived and stayed until the 17th. On Jan. 14, the high was about 22 degrees and the low dropped to about13. If the thermostat is set to 75, that’s a major 50+-degree difference during the day and 60+-degree difference at night that the heating unit must overcome. Compare that to the 25-degree difference an air conditioner must overcome to keep indoor temperatures at 75 degrees on a 100-degree day.
As the weather moved into our service area, all four members used approximately as much energy in those four days as they had the entire 13 days prior. For reference, one graph shows an entire electric house, second graph reflects a meter on a barn which also has a pool, hot tub, and a RV plugged into it, the third is an all-electric house with a wood burning fireplace with a pool, and finally a member with a gas fireplace, stove, and oven.
Although you may not have touched your thermostat, with outside temperatures dropping so dramatically, heating units must use more electricity to maintain the desired temperature indoors. We also want to emphasize that while heat pumps do use less energy and are far more efficient than space heaters(space heaters can also significantly increase your usage), heat pumps become less efficient and often switch to “emergency heat” or “resistance heat” when temperatures drop to the lower 30s. That can increase energy usage by up to three times!
You can find energy saving tips on our website www.gcec.net under the energy efficiency tab.
We are here to serve you and understand the frustration a higher than anticipated bill can cause. Our Member Services Department can be reached at 903-482-7100and our friendly MSR’s will be happy to discuss with you your bill and usage. We also offer free energy audits to help you better understand your homes energy usage.