Distribution Line Department

The Distribution Line Department is made up of a Construction Department, a Service Department, and a Meter Department.

The Construction Department consists of Overhead and Underground Crews. All crews do both revenue and maintenance jobs in both the City and Rural areas of BTU. All construction work is scheduled; however, priority is still placed on power outages that may occur during regular working hours and after hours.

The Service Department responds to customer outages and complaints, locates underground lines, installs and removes services, installs and repairs street/security lighting and meters. Monitor low/high voltage conditions for our residential, commercial and industrial customers.

The Meter Department is responsible for providing the equipment that enables BTU to accurately register and record a customer's electrical usage and/or demand for proper revenue billing. They also install and maintain our magnetic card pre-purchased electricity devices called Power Track.

Information:

  1. BTU has 93 miles of underground distribution and 1810 miles of overhead distribution. BTU's service territory is approximately 800 square miles, serving approximately 48,692 electric meters.
  2. BTU's construction department has a (5) day starting schedule, for most construction jobs, after being released from engineering/line design. All engineering, easements, drafting and aid in construction must be complete prior to engineering releasing the work order job.
  3. All jobs that require digging or trenching must go through a "one call" system that will alert the construction crews of any buried utilities, such as gas, water, sewer, telephone or cable lines, which are then flagged by the appropriate utility, prior to any construction beginning. This underground location process takes 48 hours per HB 2295.
  4. After a "new" service is installed, the customer must "apply" for service with Customer Service, before a meter can be installed and the service is energized. Presently, you may call (979) 821-5700 to setup your account which can be done prior to construction beginning.
  5. Please report all electrical outages, inoperative street lights, leaking transformers or other operational issues to BTU dispatch at (979) 822-3777.