This Morning, Oncor to Teach Dallas City Council How Electricity is Delivered

Maybe you missed this heads-up on Sunday: Oncor's schlepping over to Dallas City Hall this morning at 9ish, at a few council members' behest, to address the widespread power outage sparked by last month's snowstorm -- and the aftermath that left thousands powerless and frustrated days after the record event. And that is the most chart-and-fun-fact-filled briefing I've seen in quite a while. Like, did you know one cubic foot of wet snow weighs 25 pounds? That's the very question my wife and I were trying to answer in the dark on February 11 as our trees went snap, crackle and pop. We decided that sounded like an excellent indie-film title: The Weight of Snow.

After Oncor talks about why the lights went out and how power was restored, they'll address the need for better "communication, communication, communication" with customers and city officials. Such as, many are under the assumption that the (potentially rate-raising) Smart Meters Oncor has been installing citywide automatically warn the electric company that, yo, the lights are out. And they do ... which is to say, they will once they're all in place. Per the Oncor briefing, that won't happen till next year ("and beyond"). As always I look forward to spring, when a mere sprinkle and a gust of wind begin yet another glorious round of Transformer Russian Roulette. On the other hand, an electrical outage, some candles and a bottle of wine, and you're all set for a night of burying the power line.