In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, certain neighborhoods have withstood the power outages and kept their lights on.
Why? According to an update Wednesday, ONCOR said that customers near critical facilities are one of the reasons that certain neighborhoods might not experience rotating outages but controlled outages.
ONCOR said that based on the load reduction required by ERCOT “outages primarily occur in residential neighborhoods and commercial areas. We also strive to avoid dropping hospitals and other critical loads and infrastructure.”
That being the case, it certainly leads credence to the cliché about the three factors of real estate: “location, location, location.”
A survey of residents who have not lost power — yet — since the onset of the winter storm believe it’s a matter of living near critical facilities.
Iva Hines Johnson lives in South Arlington about five minutes from USMD Hospital at Arlington and Medical City Arlington.
“I believe because I do live near two major hospitals, my neighborhood was spared,” she said Wednesday night.
Katherine Cromer Brock lives in a condo near Medical City Las Colinas and hasn’t experienced an outage.
“I certainly never took this into consideration when I bought my home,” she said. “I feel extremely fortunate, and to everyone I talk with, I offer a hot meal, hot shower, warm place to crash. If they can get here, they’re welcome.”
Jeremy Hallock said a fire station and elementary school are close to his home in the Dells District of Dallas.
“My neighbors and I think it’s because we’re near a firehouse,” he said.
Fort Worth resident Paul Harral said “we’ve had no power outage in my part of the Berkeley neighborhood. That might be because we are near the medical district.”
Steve Cosio said his neighborhood in Mansfield has yet to lose power.
“I would assume that we’re on the same electric grid as Methodist Mansfield Hospital,” he said. “32 percent of Mansfield lost power, but many of them were on the outer parts.”
Coleen Daniell, also of Mansfield, is among the lucky who’ve not lost their lights, but she has her suspicions about why her household was spared.
“It does occur to us that we are on the low budget end of an affluent golf course community,” she said.
“Our little HOA of 120 homes abuts Walnut Estates. So … luck? Grid placement? Or proximity to affluence? Hard to say… I’m usually very opinionated, but I’m mostly just thankful and feeling lucky.”
Is it possible that real estate agents could start adding “outage-proof” as one of the features in their listings?
Probably not so much, said Rusty Hall, a real-estate agent for Century 21 Judge Fite.
“You don’t want to tell someone they’re going to be living in a perfectly safe location when experts can’t even tell you if you’d be safe,” he said. “I’m neither an expert on the electric grid nor the weather. But I do know a little about insulation and preparing your home in advance for cold or hot conditions. ”
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