Keeping The Lights On

If you've ever wondered why your lights stay on during a storm—or why they sometimes don't—this conversation will help the "last mile" of electricity finally make sense. Ronnie Grace of Sanger Electric shares insights from 28 years of serving the City of Sanger, helping a small team deliver reliable power around the clock.

We explore what a municipal electric superintendent actually does, how safety and planning guide every decision, and why local control can lead to faster response times and better customer service when it matters most. It's a behind-the-scenes look at the people and systems that keep the power flowing every day

You have been listening to The 266 Express, the official podcast of Sanger, TX.  IF you have comments or suggestions, please send them to dgreen@sangertexas.org

Transcript

Welcome And 28 Years Serving

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome to the 266 Express. I'm your host, John Knoblett, and today we have Ronnie Grace with Sanger Electric. Ronnie, how you doing? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. Ronnie, Ronnie gets a little nervous about these things. Very. But so I'm glad he's here. Didn't run off like a jackrabbit, honest. Well, Ronnie, how long you serve the community? I have been with the Sanger 28 years, or been with the city of Sanger 28 years. Yeah?

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Yeah, so you see but seen a lot of changes?

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Lots of changes.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Yeah. Yeah. Well, what does a municipal electric superintendent do on a typical day?

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Well, we man, I, you know, I manage utility operations, uh, I supervise the staff, uh, I help with ensuring safety compliances, uh, work planning and budgeting. Uh, you know, we're we're a small municipality, so there's days that, you know, if we have outages or whatever, you know, I do help them uh out on the crew. Uh customer and community relations, uh project management, and you know, just overall long-term strategic planning.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. Yeah, working director is what you are. We've got a handful of those around here, right? Yeah. So uh over the 28 years, what kind of changes have you seen?

Running A Small City Utility

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Uh well, you know, the the biggest changes would be just the growth. I mean, it's it's the growth, and especially right now, I mean, it's it's tremendous. Yeah. And, you know, just the the infrastructure alone that that we're having to do to keep up with the growth. Yeah. Is a big change that that I've seen. That, you know, our department is having to deal with directly.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

And technology has changed too, right? A lot. So yeah. And the regulatory environment is what we always laugh about until we cry sometimes, right? The um so you know, you're you're around quite a few um uh electric systems, you know, both privately held and the cooperatives and things like that. What uh what are some of the advantages of a community-owned electric utility as opposed to some of the the others?

SPEAKER_00 2:24

I think the the big advantage is you know it's it's the local control and decision making in the in the small community. Uh, you know, the the decisions are made by local officials rather than members or distant shareholders. So, you know, and we we have better I think we have better customer service because we are local and you know it we respond quickly because we're small. Right. You know, when you call for an outage, you call for a problem, you don't you don't get an answering machine. You know, you talk to a person, and you know, when we're on call, you don't talk to an answering machine. You know, you we got guys that are on call and they answer the phone.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

So, you know, to me those are advantages of of being small and being a community-owned.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Yeah, yeah. I I think that is uh that is really, really important. I think sometimes we forget that uh that aspect of what community electric could do. Sometimes uh we hear a lot of various complaints for various things throughout a system, but we don't have um the electric business's economy of scale, right? Right. So we don't we're not as big and as broad as some of uh the other electric systems, which is disadvantageous at times, but it is overall being able to be agile and responsive and like you said, make your own decisions for your community. Exactly. That's huge. That is huge.

How Power Gets To Homes

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Um so what misconceptions do you think people have about how electricity, you know, gets delivered to their home or their business?

SPEAKER_00 3:58

There's a lot of misconceptions with the electricity, you know. And I mean, most people they flip a light switch, the light comes on, that's all they care about. Uh one of the ones that I hear a lot is people think the transformer that controls the house or the business is what generates the power. And you know, it's not. It's the transformer is just a it steps the power down or steps the power up to make the voltage that goes into the house. You know, the the power is generated at a power plant that goes on the grid that comes to the substation, you know, and it just when they have an outage, you know, you get there and they're like, oh my, the the generator on the pole is is out, you know, and it's just it's that's one of the big ones.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Yeah, yeah. That is the the um you mentioned that, right? Even uh for us, everything is segmented off between generating the power, generation, transmission, and distribution, which in we're Sanger Electric is is just the distributor of the power, right? We uh we buy that wholesale. Um Brazus is our uh is uh handles the transmission for us, a substation that everybody drives by out there on 485 belongs to Brazos, and then uh but we get it, we get it to your homes. We're we're the last mile delivery, I guess, on that style. So you mentioned, and I agree, that most people only care about the lights coming on when that uh that switch is flipped. What does it take to keep those lights on 24-7?

SPEAKER_00 5:35

A maintained distribution system and you know the skilled linemen that that work day and night to operate and maintain that electric system uh and just emergency preparedness and response.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Is you know the the basic things that that keep ours running. You know, I mean, we have to be ready when, you know, storms, accidents, equipment failures, or other emergencies, you know, that disrupt the service, those guys have to be ready to work.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Yeah, and how how big's your team again? Seven. Seven got seven guys keeping the lights on. Yes, sir. Yeah, it's it it's impressive. And we you know, we we talk all the way back to uh Storm Uri, winter Storm Ure, which I I was not around, but I heard everything that had to take place to keep those lights on. Uh and uh, you know, since Uri, you uh you've been able to keep the lights on with uh with very very few issues. Uh and that's not easy to do. I mean, that's not easy to do at all, uh especially in north central Texas, right? Where weather is definitely a factor. Oh, absolutely. And we've seen that every year, some pretty brutal storms and windstorms coming through. Oh, yeah. And this is this is the worst time of the year. Yep, yeah. So what are some of the biggest challenges facing uh the utilities today?

Demand, Costs, And Storm Planning

SPEAKER_00 6:55

I think uh our increasing electric demand, you know, with population growth and the new technologies, I mean, just the the demand for electricity, yeah, uh rising cost, fuel prices, equipment cost, the supply chain, uh, and just customer expectations. Yeah. I mean, just like I said, I mean, customers, they flip that light switch, they want it to come on, you know, and especially after COVID. I mean, there's a lot of people that work from home now. And you know, they they don't want their service interrupted, you know, because it it affects their job.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

So I mean, I I think those are the biggest challenges that we face. And we forget about that, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:38

That that after COVID, some people never went back to an office. Yeah, yeah. And that that does have tremendous challenges. Data centers, you know, there's a lot of talk about data centers being the next big demand challenge that we have. Um and you look at a data center, they they use they do use a lot of power. I mean, you know, they can, you know, 20 an average 20 megs is like having 20,000 homes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So so yeah, these are all things that you guys prepare for all the time, though, right? Yes, sir. Uh so what do you think as uh as far as emergencies, because we know that's a a big one for us. How do you guys prepare for storms and emergency outages at this time of year?

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Well, this time of year, you know, we we constantly watch for storms, you know, and we if we know one's coming, uh, we we monitor that storm, we watch it, and then just we develop an emergency operation plan, which is what we call an EOP. And it's just a a detailed plan that outlines our responsibilities and procedures and the restoration pro, you know, priorities that we're gonna do. Right. You know, we get the trucks are ready, chainsaws are ready, you know, all that comes in the EOP. There's a checklist that we go down before every storm. And you know, and there are times at night when you storms pop up and you don't know, you know, but that's where the EOP comes in. I mean, we we start that this time of year, and I mean that's that's what we follow.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Yeah. Um, so and that that's a really good, good, good point that uh that EOP that uh that we carry, that's a requirement. I mean, every electric system is going to carry that. Uh so even though we're a small, small, municipally owned electric, we are we still have to meet all the requirements and standards of any any electric company in Texas that's getting power to your house. Yes, sure. And so that's a that's a a big challenge uh at any size. Um do you have any um I have a few, but do you do you have any memorable outage or emergency response stories that you could share?

SPEAKER_00 9:50

After

Winter Storm Uri And Manual Control

SPEAKER_00 9:51

28 years, I have a lot of, you know, but probably the one that that was the most memorable was the rolling blackouts of Winterstorm Urie. Yeah. I mean, it was, you know, it it was I've lived here my whole life and you know, never seen weather that cold. Right. And we had to man the substation.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

And you know, we worked eight-hour shifts, so you worked eight hours and then you had you were at home for eight hours.

unknown 10:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

So you had to go home and figure out how to survive at home with no electricity, you know, just like everyone else, and you know, keep your family safe while trying to sleep, eat, and then get back to the substation. Yeah. And so that was probably the most memorable.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

And that's uh, yeah. I but because there was no mechanism out there to to shut that power off to roll that blackout. You're you're physically touching a breaker and shutting that stuff down. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Our guys had to set at the substation and because at that time we didn't have SCADA. Right. You know, and so we had to manually set out there and walk out to the the breaker and drip it off.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Yeah, and all that to try to keep the lights on as much as you can under the demand that you roll them. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Which is not our decision. And being small, you know, we still we were still on call. Yeah. So, you know, we may have a guy that was out there at the substation that was on call, so we couldn't we had to have two people at a time, and that guy may have to go off and work on a call, or we may all get come in, you know, have to come in for a call.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

And then still man the substation. So it was it was a tough week for us.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Yeah, then you know, like I said, I wasn't here, but you can look back on it, and I mean that that alone saved the city time. I mean, you had cities around you and and that that uh run electric that you know were 10 spent tens of millions of dollars buying power to try to keep everything moving. So so um the just to think that um at the end of the day, maybe the best tool is just that person out there flipping that breaker, save Sanger when other cities really took a hit during the storm. That's incredible. It's incredible. So, how do you prioritize maintenance uh and infrastructure upgrades uh on Sanger Electric System?

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Uh you know, first and foremost is the safety. So any project that, you know, addresses the safety risk to an employee or to the public, they receive the highest priority. Right. And then just the age and condition of our infrastructure. You know, we we regularly inspect poles, power lines, transformers, things like that. And then uh system capacity and the growth. You know, the areas that are experiencing the population growth is is where the new infrastructure is coming in.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

So, you know, we that's kind of how we we prior prioritize it.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Tell me a little bit about that on you know, when you're talking about uh infrastructure upgrades and things like that. Are there any projects or initiatives that you're really excited about coming up?

Upgrades, Expansion, And Reinvestment

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Yes, sir. Uh you know, uh just the the fact that we're getting more uh small uh eating places, you know, that I think Sanger needs those and I'm kind of excited about those for lunch. But uh, you know, we've got we're working now on our infrastructure and upgrading it. And uh our I'm really excited for the substation expansion and getting another transformer there so we can get other feeders out and uh upgrade our line. You know, right now we're running at 600 amps and we're trying to upgrade that to 900 for the growth that's coming out, you know, on the highway and places like that. So that's mainly that's my biggest biggest concern right now, and what I'm excited about is the substation.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

But that's coming up, right? Brazzas, Brazzles is coming up, but the city the city was able to uh acquire the little property that we needed for the expansion. And so what does that really mean though? What is that what does that do, that additional transformer? What what will that actually do for the the system?

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Right now we're running on a uh 20 MVA transformer. Right, right. And with the expansion, we're gonna get a an additional 20 MVA transformer. All right. So we're basically doubling. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Okay. So are so we have the ability to to provide more.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Yes, and to grow. Yeah. You know, and that's the that's the whole key, is we want to grow because, you know, we want to make money. Yeah. I mean, we we we gotta grow. We it it's coming, and you know, you just gotta kind of meet it head on. And I I I think the city, and I think you're doing a great job at that. You know, that trying to meet it head on because you have to.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Yeah, you you're you're right. Um and what a lot of people don't realize is that the the the municipal electric here subsidizes a lot of services, you know. I mean, they're as far as city revenue goes, the electric's a very solid entity for us, right? And so so when we say things like we want to make money, it it's that we want to we want to make money that we can put back into the services that we provide and try, you know, and try to to keep those costs with electric reasonable, which I think the city's done a really good job with.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Trevor Burrus, Jr. And that goes back to, you know, being a small community and locally owned like that. It does allow us to put money back into the community.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

On the money that we make. We invest it back into our community. It doesn't go to shareholders, right, you know, or members. It it goes back to our community.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Right, right. And uh and like I said, it props up a lot of services for us. So um I say that to follow up with are there ways, especially during the summertime, that that uh you think customers could reduce their energy costs?

SPEAKER_00 15:43

There's

Lower Bills, Usage Data, And Pride

SPEAKER_00 15:44

a lot of ways to do it. And you know, there's I mean you can look it up online and it it's it's all the same things that that you can find. I mean, reduce the heating and cooling is the biggest impact. Right. Um improving the insulation, uh, your windows, doors, uh upgrade energy efficient appliances and lighting. You can turn off and unplug auto devices. I mean, there's a list of them. Right. But for me, and I've lived in you know several houses over my lifetime, and all these things are great and they all work. No doubt. But a lot of people can't afford those to do all these things. And then the people that rent, their landlords may not want to do these. Right. So, you know, for me, my biggest thing that that I found is set your thermostat at what your house will do. And by that I mean if if you're setting your thermostat, if it's in the summertime and you're setting your thermostat at 72, and the lowest that thing ever reads is 76 or 74, that unit is going to run constantly. Yeah, it'll run itself into the ground. It will, and it needs to cycle because that's when it's on, it's using electricity. Right. And so, you know, I found that if I set my house to if it won't do 72, then set it at 74 and let it cycle. Is it always the most comfortable? No. But if you're trying to save money, that's where you save it.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Yeah. No, I would agree with that. The um and you know, checking, checking your other, you know, like a sh a short. I've seen shorts and like um like um like a dorm room fridge where the dorm room fridge is eating more energy than any other appliance in the house. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

And old appliances are are horrible. Yeah. You know, and a lot of people they like to to find those garage refrigerators, yeah, you know, and and stick a couple of them out in your your garage, but the older ones, I mean, they they just gobble energy.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Yeah. And that's um, you know, part of the um the electronic metering are radio read meters, right? Part of that is to give uh our customers the ability to to track their usage. Right. They can do that. Uh you can you can go to the website and uh you can sign up to to really both on your water and your electric, you can look at the service you're being provided in real time. Yes, sure. Um to almost real time. I mean, there's clearly some transmission time there, but uh but you can begin to see those those patterns. You know, we think that's a great tool. Oh yes, we use it all the time. Yeah. Yeah, we do, we do. Yeah, good because you could stand, you could stand out there with an iPad and look look look at that in real time. Exactly. And we do.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Yeah, we we we watch it when we have you know customers calling in on on the you know, wanting us to check their meter for, you know. When they have issues, you know, where their the their bill they think is high, right? You know, and they want us to come check it, we can stand out there and watch it in real time, and we can tell, you know, when it peaks, when it doesn't, and and most of the time it is, you know, your HVAC system coming on. Right. You can tell and look at that graph and know exactly what it is.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Yeah. Spikes real hard.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Yeah. And then you can tell, like I said, with the thermostat, yeah. When it's not shutting off, it just stays high, you know, and and you look at houses that where it does cycle. Right. And so it's been a great tool for us. That's good. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

So what aspect of the job do you find most rewarding?

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Just making a direct impact on the community, you know, providing a a safe, reliable electric service uh and supporting the community during the storms and the the outages. I mean, that's that's the biggest reward for me, you know, is is going out on a storm and working. You know, when you know they're coming, you're like, oh man, another storm, you know, and I don't want to work tonight. But then when you do go out there, it's I guess it's that adrenaline rush you get.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

You know, and then when it's done, you know, and and and it we get it back on, and you know, then the guys and and the guys do a great job that that I work with. They're they're they're a great team. Yeah, you know, and you get it back on and it's like, man, we did that quick. Yeah. You know, and it's just that that's the biggest reward for me.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

The um so when we when we have an event here, it it never surprises me anymore, but it used to. Um when you uh you when you go out, you know, whenever whenever I whenever I head out to to start looking at at uh what damage or you know uh what what what conditions we have when whenever I get get out in my vehicle to do our administrative assessment of the situation, I guess is what you would call it. Everybody expects to see the police department, everybody expects to see the fire department, but they don't always expect to see, but you are always there, the entire electric crew working like ants all over town, trying to find the outage and get the power back up as soon as possible. Um and that um, you know, people don't realize that um always, because there is an emphasis on public safety, but the role that you guys play in public safety and the and the role that public works are uh as first response for events, what you guys um do out there. And your job in it in itself, I it always surprises me that uh that that that job is as dangerous as it is, and I don't think a lot of people know that. That you guys really have a lineman's job, is one of the most dangerous jobs you can have in in any industry.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Um so I appreciate um y'all's willingness to go out in the worst conditions at the worst times to make sure that everybody is uh the lights are on and that uh that um that we have what we need uh in order for the residents to have what they require to recover as fast as possible, which I think is ultimately what we're all trying to do after an event. Exactly. So um thank you. Yeah, no. So is there anything else that you think people would be surprised to learn about?

SPEAKER_00 22:16

You know, one of the things uh uh that people don't know, and especially community-owned utilities, like I said, we we reinvest, you know, the revenues back into the electric system and the local community. And you know, rather than the profits going to shareholders. Right. You know, and I I think a lot of people they don't realize that the utility operates 24 hours a day. Yeah, you know, and I mean it's like I said, you flip a light switch and the lights come on.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

I mean, that's somewhere somebody is gonna be listening to this in in the dark, right? They're gonna be on their phone because their lights are out. That's typically how it happens. Yeah. Um but yeah, 90 uh our uptime is incredible. I mean, you know, um I mean I've been here five years now. Um and you know, I've I've I've run other municipal electric systems, and the uptime here is is incredible comparatively, you know, um because the the city prior invested back into the system to to give give it the stability they needed to get to where we're going now. Or where so we're really probably more ahead on the system than behind long term, I think. Oh, I think so too. Yeah, absolutely. So if you could leave one uh message about municipal electric, what would it be for the general public?

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Well, for us, I mean, every decision that we make, it it is focused on providing a safe, reliable electric service while maintaining, you know, the the infrastructure that that powers the homes and the businesses.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

I mean that's that's our goal. Right. You know, for our department.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

So Well, you guys are nailing it. Well, thank you. Yeah, you have any other words of wisdom?

SPEAKER_00 24:06

I do not. No? None at all.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

No, sir. Well, Ronnie, thanks for coming in and talking to me this morning. Yes, sir. Thanks for having me. And again, I certainly appreciate what you and your team do. Um and it and I'm not just talking about what you guys do on the electric side. Um I think that uh that the culture that was created over in Sanger Electric goes way back. You have your own history. And uh and it has always been uh the the entire time I've been here, and I can't imagine beyond uh there's not a person down in those offices that doesn't want what's best for the community.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

No, I think so, because we've all been here so long, and I I think it's I think that's what everybody wants.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

Yeah, you're correct. Yeah, well, I appreciate it. I do. Well, thank you. Well, you've been listening to the 266 Express. I'm John Knoblett. Thanks for listening in to what's going on in our small little North Texas town.