DENTON, Texas — It remained cold with on and off drizzling Wednesday evening in the City of Denton. The city's winter weather plan is based on what city leaders had to deal with last winter.
Probably one of the best parts is, Denton Municipal Electric (DME) has doubled its power grid for emergency situations. That will allow the power companies to better manage necessary rolling blackouts.
Last year, some residents went five days with no power. The improved power grid will allow the city to shorten outages until full repairs are made in the future.
The DME crews started prepping for the winter storm days ago. Those preps started with making sure their work trucks were all running properly. Last year, some of them got too cold to start.
DME also stocked up on those huge capacitors you see at the top of utility poles.
There is also an extra inventory of ground capacitors this year. Crews anticipate several of them possibly malfunctioning this week due to extreme cold.
DME crews also expect to repair and replace downed power lines.
As the temperatures drop and rain comes, residents can probably count on branches snapping and falling onto powerlines, especially in tree heavy neighborhoods.
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During this storm, DME has contracted with a tree cutting company to clear the way for repair crews to do their work without any further threat of falling branches and trees.
Tony Puente serves as the general manager for Denton Municipal Electric.
"If you see down power lines, stay away from them, contact your local utility," Puente said. "Do not attempt to move them out of the road or out of the way. Assume that every line that is down is powered and can be a danger to you and others."
Work crews are now on 16-hour shifts through the weekend. Employees will rest for eight hours before starting their next 16-hour shifts. if your power goes out, report it right away to your electricity company.