North Texas heat wave sparks power outages across Dallas neighborhoods
The extreme heat in North Texas is straining electrical equipment and causing scattered power outages across several Dallas neighborhoods.
More than a dozen residents in the Kessler Park neighborhood told CBS News Texas they experienced two outages on Monday during the extreme temperatures. One lasted about an hour, and the second about 30 minutes.
Will Mallery, who was home for one of the outages, said they didn't cause any major issues.
"It was really just like a surge... like it went off, the TV went off, the appliances went off," Mallery said. "It came back on pretty quickly; it was just kind of like a reboot of everything."
The Kessler Park Day School confirmed the outages and said it notified parents, asking them to pick up their children early as a precaution. An apartment complex in Dallas' Design District was also affected.
CBS News Texas contacted ERCOT about grid conditions. A spokesperson said the grid is "operating with sufficient reserves to serve the region," adding that "any outages experienced are local in nature and unrelated to overall grid reliability."
Oncor told CBS News Texas that during periods of sustained high heat, "it's possible for some electrical equipment to experience added stress, which may lead to power outages."
"I do a little work for companies doing electrical equipment, so I know quality is a big thing, and there's people that are all hands-on deck working on those types of issues, and trying to safeguard events like that from happening," Mallery said.
With the heat wave stretching into its third day on Wednesday, Mallery said the impact can be more serious for some.
"I think people with children and maybe elderly people, it's a little more pressing, but for me, it was no big deal," he said. "Don't stay outside too long."
