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Founded in 1912, Oncor is a veteran in the field of electric distribution and transmission. The company uses superior asset management skills to provide reliable electric delivery to consumers. Oncoroperates over 140,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines, serving more than 400 communities and 98 counties. The company’s service area includes three of the top 15 fastest growing cities and four of the top 10 fastest growing counties in America over the past decade.
The journey of Oncor began in 1912, when it was first established as Texas Power & Light, serving central and east Texas. In years to come, Dallas Power & Light, formed in 1917 and Texas Electric Service Company, formed in 1923 along with Texas Power & Light became subsidiaries of the parent company Texas Utilities which was formed in 1945. In 1983, a merger of the three subsidiaries of Texas Utilities created TU Electric, as the one electric delivery company serving nearly one third of Texas. In 1999, after the Senate Bill 7 passed, Oncor was created in order to separate the delivery of electric power from the generation and retail sale of electricity in the newly deregulated Texas electric market.
Allen Nye is currently working as the CEO of Oncor and a member of the board of directors since March 2018. Prior to this, Mr. Nye served as Oncor’s Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary and his responsibilities included oversight of all legal, regulatory, and compliance matters. With a strong background as a partner at the law firms of Hunton & Williams LLP (now known as Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP) and Vinson & Elkins LLP, Mr. Nye focused on the representation of regulated energy companies before state and federal government agencies, including the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the State Office of Administrative Hearings, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. An active community leader, Mr. Nye serves on the boards of various philanthropic and industry organizations.
Oncor offers self-healing grid technology in its smart meters that can outsmart potential power overloads and outages. The company uses predictive analytics, drone technology, and state-of-the-art automation in order to get the technology work. Its advanced meters provide customers with more accurate information about their electric use, allowing them to be more efficient and embrace benefits such as “Time of Use” pricing from retail electric providers.
In addition, these meters have provided significant environmental benefits since their deployment. Since 2013, these advanced meters have managed to complete more than 37.5 million service orders without dispatching personnel, avoiding these truck rolls, taking the company one step closer to its sustainability goals.
What makes Oncor’s services unique is their ability to identify potential equipment overloads, transformer failures, voltage issues, and other challenges before they affect customers. The company uses a fleet of drones to monitor and inspect grid components in all weather conditions safely and efficiently. These frequent inspections mean crews can discover issues before they happen. In addition, Oncor has also adopted Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), a remote sensing method that measures distance and creates a computerized representation of the surveyed environment. This quickly and accurately identifies priority vegetation encroachments without a truck roll, and aids in long-term vegetation management planning and analysis.
Additionally, Oncor’s predictive weather modelling strategically rallies personnel, equipment, and resources to quickly restore service in the aftermath of powerful storms and weather systems. This enables customers to stay informed about weather and get tips to conserve energy and stay safe in the face of storms and potential electric hazards.
Oncor is showcasing tremendous growth across its service territory. At the end of the third quarter in 2022, the company had connected approximately 14,000 new premises, bringing its year-to-date new premise count to approximately 49,000. This has set a company record for new annual transmission interconnection requests. Across the territory, the company placed USD 80 million of transmission projects into service. These included placement of two major substation projects into service and a portion of the construction or upgrade of approximately 300 miles of transmission and distribution lines.
In addition, Oncor has negotiated a three-year agreement with a retail electric provider to provide 100% renewable electricity at all Oncor facilities and announced a five-year capital plan that would invest approximately $15 billion between 2022 and 2026.
Oncor has built a team of 4,500 employees that thrives on effortless communication across the organization and with the customers. The company uses its in-house MyOncor app and state-of-the-art website to drive better resource planning and efficiencies across the business. Allen and his team believe that “innovation doesn’t have an off switch” and the same spirit enables them to power one of the fastest growing economies in the nation and inform every aspect of their operations.
As the energy industry continues to evolve from its earliest days, Oncor’s entire operation is expected to observe gradual growth through innovation to stay ahead of Texas’ enormous capacity needs. The company empowers its employees to do whatever it takes to keep the power on and works with all the communities it serves to nurture what makes Texas great. This inevitably makes Oncor the fastest growing company to watch.
