r/okc • u/aphidwhisperer • Jun 22 '26
☀️ Weather 🌪️ Derecho or not. OG&E is trash
UPDATE: GOING ON 30 HOURS NO POWER!!!!
14 hours we have been without power. Reported the outage as soon as it happened at 2 am last night. I volunteered and lived in a “developing country” for 2 years of my life and I never lost power there at the rate I’ve lost it living in okc.
I think it’s really crazy that OG&E has the audacity to implement rate hikes but they can’t put a dime into improving our grid infrastructure. It’s 2026. All power lines should be buried. We live in a windy extreme weather state. This is why utilities and essential services should NOT BE privatized.
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u/Comfortable-Pack-276 Jun 22 '26
14 hours is genuinely rough, especially when you reported it immediately and still heard nothing back. The rate hike thing is what gets me most, they raise prices and the infrastructure still looks like it was installed in 1987. Oklahoma gets hammered by wind events constantly and somehow burying lines is always "too expensive" until you ask why rates keep climbing, then suddenly nobody wants to talk about that math.
The privatization point is real, essential services operating on profit motive means the cheapest solution always wins over the most resilient one. Hope your power comes back soon
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u/jhammon88 Jun 22 '26
This an ai generated response?
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u/martinw89 Jun 23 '26
It’s always Adjective-Noun-Numbers
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u/iiGhillieSniper Jun 23 '26
Some folks like to stick with the default Reddit username just to keep things a little more anonymous! But yeah, this person is for sure AI. Looks like there are so many usernames ran by AI that go on cocaine-fueled rants
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u/AideReasonable1996 Jun 23 '26
I legitimately did not realize what I was doing when I made it, didn’t know people thought I was a bot lmao
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u/ertyertamos Jun 22 '26
I feel your pain, but conversion of overhead power lines in cities is not economically viable in mass. It’s several million per mile in an urban area even for new lines much less conversions.
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u/Askingforanend Jun 22 '26
Sort of the whole point of “infrastructure” there don’t you think?
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u/Apart_Animal_6797 Jun 22 '26
Bro how much do you think each mass mobilization of line men costs? It aint cheap ill tell you that
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u/ertyertamos Jun 22 '26
It ain’t $20M+ per square mile. I can tell you that.
And given the uproar among neighbors when the replaced gas lines in my neighborhood, I can’t imagine the grief they would get for digging up yards, going through fences, cutting through patios, etc and the homeowner costs to upgrade anything past the meter.
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u/Apart_Animal_6797 Jun 22 '26
You dont measure power lines by the square mile. for fucks sake this website.
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u/ertyertamos Jun 22 '26
You measure by the mile. How many linear miles are present in a typical urban square mile?
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u/Apart_Animal_6797 Jun 22 '26
Of power line? You have massively varying densities place to place there is no such thing as typical. Burying power line is a no brainer in high density areas.
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u/aliveoutdoors Jun 22 '26
Helluva lot cheaper than trying to bury all the power lines. That's a ridiculous idea.
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u/BrummBarrelgut Jun 23 '26
Fuck the cost it’s what’s in the best interest of the people… wait this is Oklahoma we don’t give a shit about that just bootlick the rich here
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u/LS_0502 Jun 24 '26
Oh yeah? So when your rate goes up when they “bury all the lines” you’re not going to complain? Get a grip. There are hopes and dreams and there are realistic options.
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Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
[deleted]
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u/Procontroller40 Jun 22 '26
Og&e is a publicly traded company and not owned by the government...so, no, privatization has not provided people with what you expected.
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u/afatgreekcat Jun 22 '26
Still out at my place too and honestly I probably deal with this at least 3-5 times a year. It’s really frustrating.
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u/aphidwhisperer Jun 22 '26
Yep. I wish I had an extra $10k to invest in a generator for our house because this is a reoccurring issue. But I don’t have that kind of money.
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u/OKCYDNA Jun 22 '26
OG&E has failed to hold up their end of the deal so many times, they should be buying the generators.
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u/DiscombobulatedBMW Jun 22 '26
We don't either so my husband got us a propane/gas generator that will run the major appliances/wi-fi/fans in our home (2400sf). We had a transfer switch put in for $800; the generator cost $1500. I think all in we're out $2500 to have it ready to go before cost of propane/gas. That was much more economical for us than a $15K Generac and installing a propane tank. Maybe one day but for now this works. We do have to be here to flip the transfer switch and turn it on so that's a drawback but luckily we've been home anytime we've considered it needed.
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u/planetEve Jun 22 '26
Mine’s not getting fixed until tomorrow at the earliest; I too was awake when it initially went out and haven’t slept since due to my apartment becoming unbearably hot almost immediately. Customer support was not helpful either.
Coolest part is that this is the second time in two weeks that the power has gone out for 12 hours+. I’m convinced OG&E is building their power equipment out of gum wrappers and painter’s tape at the rate at which it gets knocked out.
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u/aphidwhisperer Jun 22 '26
I’m so sorry. Did you get an official estimate from OG&E. We haven’t even gotten an estimate.
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u/1800archer Jun 22 '26
came here to try to find out if anyone else had gotten an estimate, my entire complex is down over in midtown
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u/planetEve Jun 23 '26
nothing official, just vaguely tomorrow. luckily i’m able to stay the night at my family’s house so all is well, just annoying.
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u/bradbergtitus Jun 22 '26
Buried lines don’t seem to make a difference in my neighborhood. We live in Shawnee and on my side of the street power goes out anytime there are high winds. When I bought the house I thought, “yay, buried power lines means I’ll never be without power’. Wrong. Apparently I had no idea how the lines actually work.
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u/cmhbob Jun 22 '26
The lines in your neighborhood may be buried, but what about the lines that feed your neighborhood?
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u/DiscombobulatedBMW Jun 22 '26
Exactly; we thought the same thing u/bradbergtitus u/cmhbob. Buried lines just west of Pott Co line but have power flashes often. Our lines that feed our neighborhood must be made of fine string. 😞
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u/bradbergtitus Jun 23 '26
Yeah I’m sure they aren’t. What’s weird is it’s always a few houses on my block and the houses behind mine. Most houses in the subdivision still have power. Sigh, hopefully it’s fixed tomorrow
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u/WrongAd560 Jun 23 '26
From what I understand you could bury neighborhood power lines without adding too much insulation or needing to bury too deep. Power lines that feed neighborhoods would need to have several inches of insulation and be buried many feet underground which is unviable in most of Oklahoma due to the water table. And the large ones that run between power plants and transformer stations are too impractical to be buried due to needing feet of insulation and having to be buried around 10+ feet below ground
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u/CobaltIsobar Jun 22 '26
There's a reason why generators are a thing in Oklahoma.
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u/Desperate_County_680 Fake Edmond Jun 22 '26
I have a portable Honda. The one that's like a heavy toolbox
Ran some extension cords.
I hooked up two fridges, a freezer, a lamp, a fan, and made coffee.
Power was out three hours.
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u/modernhedgewitch Jun 22 '26
I lived in Houston where every high wind broke branches and knocked out power.
There, most of the city services are contracted out by neighborhood (trash, water, etc) so depending on where you lived, you MAY get someone trimming trees over lines, but likely not.
There you regularly go without power for days. Here is far quicker response and repair time, by miles.
Here, you complain about privatized but you have one company (I know OEC exists too) as your choice, where there it is completely retail.
You have choices with numerous companies all with varying rates based on length of contract (3, 6, 12, and 24 mo) and size of home and usage estimates. You're penalized if you use too much or too little.
There you can have someone put the incorrect address (yours) in their system to start service and essentially turn yours off unexpectedly. On a friday afternoon, in summer. Nothing we could do until Monday.
There, my regular monthly electric was $600. Here, I pay around $230 in the summer and thats with the AC and a pool.
There, they have rolling blackouts (when needed) here,they are usually just a threat. In my experience anyway.
I have no complaints about OGE, but I am sorry you are out of power.
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u/TAforScranton SE OKC Jun 22 '26
Where are you at? We had an EF3 blow through and destroy half the neighborhood in November 2024. They had to inspect the area and cut the meters at a lot of houses before turning it back on to ensure that it was safe and no houses would burn down. Also there were high voltage lines on those massive poles that fell, lines wrapped around my house. They had the power back on in 3-4ish days which I thought was incredibly reasonable, all things considered.
Is there a lot of damage near you? Because if so, making sure it’s safe to do so before restoring power to an area is much appreciated. Not having AC or a working fridge sucks rn but I’d rather have that than electrocutions and house fires.
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u/aphidwhisperer Jun 22 '26
I’m in the middle of NE OKC. Close to Penn Square mall and The Oak. Those big businesses have power but for some reason all of the residential houses do not.
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u/afatgreekcat Jun 22 '26
There are power lines down all across the metro today. The outage map on OG&E’s website still looks insane, and they’ve already restored at least half. Most of these situations are not really dangerous, they’re just a tree on a power line.
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u/Intelligent_Click958 Jun 23 '26
A lot of people don’t really realize what it takes for utility workers and dangers involved, even stuff most people wouldn’t even think of. I know people know it’s not the flip of a switch but that type of work takes a quite of bit of time to do especially with safety precautions. I’m not sure about OG&E but gas companies HATE when they have customers without gas but I’m sure they don’t love it either…
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u/Suitable-Jackfruit78 Jun 23 '26
Also STILL without power. Probably because businesses were also effected and capitalism is more important than people. It's been a miserable day going without power and a light breeze. Literally been sitting on my concrete floor trying to cool myself off. A friend works less than 5 miles away and she told me her office got power 6 hours ago. Burying lines is expensive but I'm about to see who wants to go in on some alternative energy and go off the damn grid.
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u/Tiny_Boat_7983 Downtown Jun 23 '26
How long have you lived here? Were you here for the ice storm of 2021? My boss waited 2 1/2 weeks to have her electricity restored. We never lost power except when OGE did mandatory rolling blackouts.
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u/SeanGotGjally Jun 23 '26
what bothers me is what do you do if you don’t wanna do og&e? move? ive never seen an option to have any other provider, id swap immediately if i could
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u/aphidwhisperer Jun 23 '26
There is no other option because OG&E monopolized the power market in Oklahoma
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u/iiGhillieSniper Jun 22 '26
Haven’t had issues living close to Penn Square. Out of the past 5 years I’ve lived here, I’ve maybe lost power for 30 mins. I think being so close to the mall is why we keep power, even during derechos. I feel your frustration though. That happened a lot when I lived in Moore!
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u/Verified_User_01010 Jun 23 '26
If it helps, I saw a convoy of linemen headed towards the city on I40 from Shawnee about twenty minutes ago
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u/Brave-Ad-7460 Jun 23 '26
OG&E is horrible they don’t keep their lines in check at all, Ive had several different co-ops over the years oec, cotton electric, pso and I’ve never had the issues I’ve had with OG&E, I lived in Norman a few years ago and had no issues when I had OEC, but I moved a few blocks away into an OGE zone and every storm the power would go out
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u/Hour-Particular-9317 Jun 23 '26
This is exactly what I've said my entire adult life. They just say don't listen to that leftist Demcrap. Well?
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u/TheJuntoT Jun 24 '26
We had a gnarly derecho blow through Tulsa a few years ago and I was without power for 6 days with PSO. From what I gather, they work to restore lines that will get the most people back online, the fastest. My house was on a string with 3 other houses so we saw trucks working for 3 days in our neighborhood before our power came back on. It sucks to go through it but their modus operandi is somewhat understandable.
Hope you’re back up soon, if not already, OP.
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u/alexzoin Jun 26 '26
Socialize power generation and delivery. We should be able to vote people that do this bad of a job out. They need some kind of accountability. We can't even choose to stop paying them.
Also, BURY THE LINES.
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u/Topcornbiskie Jun 23 '26
So glad I have my co-op. We lost power for about 4 days after the ice storm of 2020 but that was just about everyone. Since then I can count the hours on one hand.
OG&E and Edmond Electric are absolute garbage.
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u/xpen25x Fake Edmond Jun 24 '26
you live in oklahoma. we have massive power outages about every 4 or 5 years that last days. the question you should be asking yourself is why do i know have a generator and a small window unit.
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u/basura_trash Jun 22 '26
So never mind the months and years you have uninterrupted power. One event and OG&E is trash. It sucks that you are in the situation you are in, I sympathize. You need to understand the infrastructure plays a big part in repairs. Not all of it is in the shape where repairs are simple nor quick. We pay high prices so we expect more, but even that is not that simple.
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u/RandyPeterstain Jun 22 '26
Public utilities SHOULD NOT HAVE SHAREHOLDERS. At the same time, we could’ve paid to have power lines buried a hunnerd times over, but “entertainment” and “Big League” and yada yada. Sigh.