Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Electric Utility |
Founded | 2007 |
Headquarters | Dallas, Texas |
Key people | Allen Nye (CEO) |
Revenue | US$4.3 billion (2019) [1] |
US$651 million (2019) [1] | |
Number of employees | 4,000 or more |
Parent | Sempra Energy |
Website | www |
Oncor Electric Delivery Company is the largest transmission and distribution electric utility in the state of Texas and the 5th largest utility company in the US. [2] Their service territory includes east, west, and north-central Texas, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Irving, Plano, Arlington, Beeville, Midland, Odessa, Killeen, Waco, Wichita Falls, Tyler, and other cities throughout Texas. [3] In 2018, Sempra Energy acquired a majority stake in Oncor for US$9.45 billion. [4]
This section needs to be updated.(July 2021) |
It was formerly known as TXU Electric Delivery and TU Electric. Predecessor companies include Dallas Power & Light (DP&L), which served the city of Dallas; Electric Service Company (TESCO), which served areas surrounding Fort Worth; and Texas Power and Light (TP&L), which served other areas of northwest and east-central Texas. Oncor began replacing analog meters in 2008 with digital meters throughout its system, although some older analog meters remain.
Oncor is privately held by a limited number of investors including Energy Future Holdings Corporation ("EFH"). Oncor is separate from its owners and separately managed by a majority independent board of directors. While a majority owner, EFH was not involved in the management of Oncor. On March 24, 2016, the Public Utility Commission (PUC) granted the request to convert Oncor into a real estate investment trust (REIT) with the reservation that the PUC would consider the treatment of potential tax savings, which could account for $250 million, from the REIT structure in a separate proceeding to be held at a future date. The subsequent proceeding's focus was to determine how the potential tax savings attributable to the REIT format would be shared with utility ratepayers. [5]
On July 7, 2017, it was announced that Berkshire Hathaway had agreed on a deal to buy the whole of Energy Future Holdings and ultimately Oncor. This bid was ultimately surpassed by Sempra Energy, which bid $9.45 billion in cash and the assumption of debt on August 21, 2017. [6] The acceptance of the Sempra bid effectively terminated the Berkshire bid. The Sempra bid subsequently received court approval on September 6, 2017. [7] On March 8, 2018, regulators in Texas approved Sempra Energy's purchase of a majority stake in Oncor for $9.45 billion. [4]
As of 2014, Oncor Electric Delivery Company was working in partnership with Siemens AG Power Technologies to build a smart grid in an exploration of the use of storage batteries and micro-grids. [8] The Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ) project was intended to improve the transmission of wind power to Oncor's grid. [9]
Oncor Electric Delivery Company works with private and public utilities throughout the country through organizations called Mutual Assistance Groups. Oncor is a member of Texas Mutual Assistance Group, Midwest Mutual Assistance Group, and the Southeastern Electric Exchange. The mutual partnerships are part of a larger network of utilities that meet throughout the year to share best practices and improve upon safety methods. Members are able to quickly access and deploy resources and personnel across long distances to communities impacted by severe weather. For example, Oncor crews were sent to Florida and Georgia to assist in Hurricane Matthew aftermath in 2016. [10] Additionally, crews were sent to California to assist in restoring power to areas devastated by the region's wildfires in 2018, and to Florida to assist in preparing for Hurricane Dorian in 2019. [11] [12]
Oncor Electric Delivery Company's Take A Load Off provides a variety of energy efficiency programs for residences and businesses in an effort to reduce energy and save people money on their electric bill. Oncor budgeted more than $50 million for its programs in 2019; in the last ten years, Take A Load Off Texas has helped more than 250,000 customers reduce their energy usage. [13]
Oncor assisted with the adoption of larger, commercial electric vehicles. The company worked with electric vehicle original equipment manufacturers and other utilities to monitor the use of electric vehicles in its service territory, to provide power supply to vehicles and homes; it has helped install and plan locations for charging stations. [14]
For nine consecutive years, Oncor has partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation's Energy-Saving Trees Program to give away thousands of free trees to customers. The program is designed to help customers better understand where to plant trees for maximum energy savings and the protection of electrical equipment. [15]
Oncor's transmission system is planned to connect to a $104 million solar farm in Falls County. San Antonio–based OCI Solar Power is planning the project where 800 acres will be leased from private landowners in the reinvestment zone where it plans to build the 100-megawatt farm. [16]
Oncor partnered with IBM Oncor to predict for preventative maintenance where vegetative growth is most likely to interfere with power lines, which can cause blackouts and wildfires. [17]
In April 2020, Oncor donated $1.7 million to community non-profit organizations across its service territory that serve those most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. [18]
In 2021, Oncor announced a donation of 110 acres of land to the City of Dallas to be used as a public park. It will be the largest donation of land to the city since the 1930s. [19]
Energy Future Holdings Corporation is an electric utility company headquartered in Energy Plaza in Downtown Dallas, Texas, United States. The majority of the company's power generation is through coal and nuclear power plants. From 1998 to 2007, the company was known as TXU Corporation until its $45 billion leveraged buyout by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, TPG Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners. That purchase was the largest leveraged buyout in history. As of 2019, TXU Energy is a subsidiary of publicly traded Vistra Energy.
TXU Energy is an American retail electricity provider headquartered in Irving, Texas, serving residential and business customers in deregulated regions of Texas since the deregulation of the Texas electricity market in 2002. A subsidiary of Vistra Corp, it is one of the largest retail electricity providers in Texas.
The State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), commonly known as the State Grid, is a Chinese state-owned electric utility corporation. It is the largest utility company in the world. As of March 2024, State Grid is the world's third largest company overall by revenue, behind Walmart and Amazon. In 2023 it was reported as having 1.3 million employees, 1.1 billion customers and revenue equivalent to US$546 billion. It is overseen by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.
Xcel Energy Inc. is a U.S. regulated electric utility and natural gas delivery company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, serving more than 3.7 million electric customers and 2.1 million natural gas customers across parts of eight states. It consists of four operating subsidiaries: Northern States Power-Minnesota, Northern States Power-Wisconsin, Public Service Company of Colorado, and Southwestern Public Service Co.
American Electric Power Company, Inc. (AEP), is an American domestic electric utility company in the United States. It is one of the largest electric utility companies in the country, with more than five million customers in 11 states.
NRG Energy, Inc. is an American energy company, headquartered in Houston, Texas. It was formerly the wholesale arm of Northern States Power Company (NSP), which became Xcel Energy, but became independent in 2000. NRG Energy is involved in energy generation and retail electricity. Their portfolio includes natural gas generation, coal generation, oil generation, nuclear generation, wind generation, utility-scale generation, and distributed solar generation. NRG serves over 7 million retail customers in 24 US states including Texas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio; the District of Columbia, and eight provinces in Canada.
Sempra is a North American public utility holding company based in San Diego, California. The company is one of the largest utility holding companies in the United States with nearly 40 million consumers. Sempra's focus is on electric and natural gas infrastructure and its operating companies include: Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDGE) in Southern California; Oncor Electric Delivery Company in Texas; and Sempra Infrastructure, with offices in California and Texas.
The Texas electricity market is deregulated, meaning that there is competition in the generation and distribution of electricity. Power generators in the Texas Interconnection, managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, participate in an energy-only electricity market and are compensated only for the electricity they produce. The wholesale generation market was deregulated in 1995 and the distribution market in 1999, with Texas Senate Bill 7. This replaced the prior system in which power was generated and consumed locally by the same utility with one in which retail providers contracted with generators across the state.
A virtual power plant (VPP) is a system that integrates multiple, possibly heterogeneous, power resources to provide grid power. A VPP typically sells its output to an electric utility. VPPs allow energy resources that are individually too small to be of interest to a utility to aggregate and market their power. As of 2024, VPPs operated in the United States, Europe, and Australia.
PacifiCorp is an electric power company based in the Lloyd Center Tower in Portland, Oregon with operations in the western United States.
The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) is an association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies.
Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (HEI) is the largest supplier of electricity in the U.S. state of Hawaii, supplying power to 95% of Hawaii's population through its electric utilities: Hawaiian Electric Company serving Oahu, Hawai'i Electric Light Company serving The Big Island, and Maui Electric Company serving Maui, Lanai and Molakai. In addition, HEI owns a financial institution serving Hawaii, American Savings Bank, and a clean energy and sustainability company, Pacific Current LLC.
DPL Inc. is a subsidiary of AES Corporation. Through its subsidiary AES Ohio, DP&L sells to, and generates electricity for, a customer base of over 500,000 people within a 6,000-square-mile (16,000 km2) area of West Central Ohio, including the area around Dayton, Ohio, its namesake. Electricity for DP&L's 24 county service area within Ohio's Miami Valley is primarily generated at eight coal-fired power plants, but DP&L also provides service to its clients via the use of combustion turbines, diesel peaking units, and solar powered properties.
Solar power in Arizona has the potential to, according to then-Governor Janet Napolitano, make Arizona "the Persian Gulf of solar energy". In 2012, Arizona had 1,106 MW of photovoltaic (PV) solar power systems, and 6 MW of concentrated solar power (CSP), bringing the total to over 1,112 megawatts (MW) of solar power. As an example, the Solana Generating Station, a 280 MW parabolic trough solar plant, when commissioned in 2013, was the largest parabolic trough plant in the world and the first U.S. solar plant with molten salt thermal energy storage.
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Reliant Energy Retail Holding, LLC is an American energy company based in Houston, Texas. It serves the state of Texas.
Whitefish Energy Holdings, LLC is a small holding company based in Whitefish, Montana whose portfolio of companies installs, maintains, and repairs electrical grids. The holding company was founded in 2015 by Andy Techmanski, a former lineman. In October 2017, Whitefish, a company whose previous biggest assignment was $1.4 million, was awarded a $300 million contract to repair part of the energy infrastructure in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. This contract involved Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA). The contract was ultimately canceled after coming under public scrutiny; the company relied on subcontracted workers, who were paid several times less than the sum Whitefish Energy charged PREPA in return, which was described by The New York Times as "far above the norm even for emergency work — and almost 17 times the average salary of [such workers] in Puerto Rico."
Home energy upgrades from public utilities are added home energy efficiency and renewable energy features planned or installed by public utilities. Help from a public utility can make it easier for a homeowner to select, install or operate climate-friendly components. The utility might assist with coordinated use of utility-supplied energy, building features, financing, operating options and neighborhood supplied energy.
In February 2021, the state of Texas suffered a major power crisis, which came about during three severe winter storms sweeping across the United States on February 10–11, 13–17, and 15–20. The storms triggered the worst energy infrastructure failure in Texas state history, leading to shortages of water, food, and heat. More than 4.5 million homes and businesses were left without power, some for several days. At least 246 people were killed directly or indirectly, with some estimates as high as 702 killed as a result of the crisis.
The climate in Texas is changing partially due to global warming and rising trends in greenhouse gas emissions. As of 2016, most area of Texas had already warmed by 1.5 °F (0.83 °C) since the previous century because of greenhouse gas emissions by the United States and other countries. Texas is expected to experience a wide range of environmental impacts from climate change in the United States, including rising sea levels, more frequent extreme weather events, and increasing pressure on water resources.