City of La Marque, TNMP Address Outage Concerns

(City of La Marque, Texas) – Recent power outages in the City of La Marque have caused some concern for local residents. City officials met with TNMP recently to discuss the power outages and alleviate concerns.

“In the past three months, we have had five outages in the City of La Marque, but two of those were beyond our control” said Neal Walker, TNMP vice president of Texas operations. “We understand that our customers depend on us for reliable electric service and we are doing everything we can to provide that.”

According to Walker, the recent outages were independent, unrelated events. “This is not part of a trend where these outages share the same common root cause,” he said, adding that outages, especially those affecting the entire La Marque substation, are unusual.  The recent outages were caused by equipment failure, a relay testing error, and most recently, a truck that hit TV cable facilities causing a power outage.

City officials contacted TNMP to discuss concerns about the outages, said Eric Gage, City Manager for the City of La Marque. “We have been talking to TNMP about the concerns of the residents of La Marque, however, we understand this is not intentional and they are doing everything they can to correct this problem.”

“Data for the region over the past couple of years indicates that the City of La Marque’s reliability is in line with reliability in other surrounding communities,” said Walker. In fact, TNMP has spent $1.2 million in the past two years updating and improving the La Marque Substation.  According to Walker, more improvement projects are planned this year and over the next few years as part of TNMP's normal maintenance and capital improvement plan.

Gage said that TNMP representatives explained the causes of the outages and provided a detailed explanation of the steps they have taken to prevent similar outages in the future.

TNMP is in the process of conducting patrols of distribution circuits; have installed wildlife protection devices; are doing a grounding study; and will utilize a high-tech UV camera to  identify insulators at risk of failure, said Walker. A number of other preventive measures are also underway.

Gage also said that La Marque residents could help by keeping easements clear and trees trimmed.

“Since Hurricane Ike, we have had a lot of clean out of easements. However, the City urges all of our residents to assist the power company in having their trees and brush off the power lines.”

“We don’t like power outages anymore than our customers do,” said Walker. “Our employees live and work in this community and we take pride in and recognize the importance of delivering reliable electric service.” 

Walker said TNMP plans to continue to work closely with the city to alleviate any concerns they have about electric service. “We will continue to do everything we can to provide reliable electricity to the citizens of the City of La Marque.”

TNMP is a transmission and distribution service provider that delivers power to about 231,000 customers on behalf of 65 retail electric providers in Texas. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of PNM Resources.