Denton

Months After Historic Winter Storms, Denton Energy Center Still Working on Repairs

The radiator was among several units damaged at the center, during the winter storms

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It’s been nearly two months since a winter storms took down the state’s power grid and left millions in the dark. Home and business owners are still making repairs and so are power plant operators. NBC 5 reporter Yona Gavino got a look inside the Denton Energy Center.

The Denton Energy Center, which is interconnected with the ERCOT grid, and provides energy directly to it, is still making repairs, months after the winter storms.  

Like many homes and businesses, the Denton Energy Center was hit hard by the historic winter storms.  

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Tony Puente, Executive Manager of Utilities for the city of Denton, talked about the damage during a media tour of the center on Friday.

“Primarily when the gas pressure dropped from the facility, we were down for about 24 hours. During that period of time, our radiators and other components started to freeze over, and started to become damaged,” said Tony Puente, Executive Manager of utilities, for the City of Denton. 

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The city took ERCOT to court - and sued after it got hit with a $200 million dollar electricity bill for four days of use.  

Puente says no changes have been made, but there are recommendations to try to prevent another widespread outage.  

“In the next few months, we will be coming back to City Council with some cost proposals, and some impacts on what that might mean for the city electric fund, and then ask them for authorization to move forward on some of those recommendations,” said Puente. 

While repairs still have to be made, he says the facility is fully operational.  

A city of Denton spokesperson says a hearing is set for April 26.  

The city currently has a restraining order in place to prevent ERCOT from assessing uplift charges to the city of Denton.   

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