Report a power outage and get a power outage update in Texas

Extreme and/or unseasonal weather can threaten the delivery of power to your home. While in most cases your retail electric provider is your first point of contact for your electricity concerns, it is your Transmission and Distribution Utility (TDU) that is responsible for responding to power outages and electricity-related emergencies. Nearly all TDUs have a 24/7 power outage phone number available and most have their own power outage map which includes the number of customers affected, repair updates, and estimated time the outage will last. Continue reading to find your TDU's contact information, and what to do if you don't know which one to call.

Does it matter which power grid I am on?

The short answer: Nope.

If your lights suddenly go off and the electrical hum goes silent, it is extremely unlikely that the power outage is stemming from the electricity grid itself. In nearly all cases, an outage will come from a blown transformer, power poles knocked over, or power lines snapped by tree limbs. However, in the smallest possibility that a power grid faces issues, knowing which grid you are on may come in handy.

Texas power grids

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) service area, which cover most of Texas, is dominated by five deregulated (energy retail) transmission and distribution utility companies (TDUs). The remaining Texas areas that are not on the ERCOT grid are covered by three other national grids (below) which are regulated and not open to retail competition.

The non-ERCOT grids in Texas include (in order of largest to smallest coverage) the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), and the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC).

1. SPP area covers the majority of the Texas panhandle (Lubbock, Amarillo, Canyon, Dumas, Pampa, Hereford, and Panhandle) and the northeast/upper east corner of Texas (cities of Texarkana, Henderson, Marshall, Jefferson, Pittsburg, Boston, Carthage, and Center)
2. The MISO service area covers a segment of east-central Texas, just bordering north of Harris County, and powers Beaumont, Tyler, Huntsville, Jasper, Conroe, Bryan, Madisonville, Livingston, Woodville, and surrounding communities.
3. The grid with the smallest coverage in Texas, the WECC, has the western tip of Texas. WECC services all of El Paso County and Hudspeth County and portions of Culberson, Jeff Davis, and Presidio Counties. The major cities in this area include El Paso and Sierra Blanca.

How do I locate the utility company for my area?

Regardless of location and service area, you should always communicate a power outage with your utility company, not your electric provider. There are a few places to turn to when you need to find out which TDU services your area and exact location.

The monthly electric bill sent by your electric provider (in deregulated zones)

A surefire way to know which utility company works directly with your retail electric provider is to check out your monthly billing statement. Considering every electricity provider charges their customers the utility company's fees and energy rate charges, the energy distributor charging those tariffs is most likely listed (by your electric provider) on that same bill.

If you have read this far ... ... that means either you haven't received a bill yet, misplaced it, or tossed it.
Whatever the case, there are a couple other ways (below) to figure out which utility company services your address!

Find your utility company by location

Even though this is more of an estimation, using a general location tends to be the fastest way to understand which utility company services an exact address. Below are the Texas power grids, their coverage areas with larger cities, and the utility company outage information for each.

Find your utility company using your electricity meter's ESID number

If you have a meter already installed and have access to it, try to find the ESI ID (sometimes called the ESID) number. This is a unique X-digit number assigned to each meter by the utility company for the area..

ESID / ESI ID format The ESI ID is only numeric (no letters are included) and is found on the front face of the meter. The ESI ID may range anywhere from 17 to 22 digits in length and includes an identification code for each utility company.

The utility company (TDU) code consists of five numbers (digits places 3 to 7). The first two digits will be a "10" followed by the five digit TDU identity code. [For example: 100310986034669210].