How many people does it take to replace an Oncor streetlight bulb?

This is not a joke: It usually takes just one. And that’s even when that bulb is eight inches long, screwed into a fixture the size of a microwave and suspended 20-plus feet off the ground.

But if you ask Oncor’s Tim Burleson that question, he’ll tell you it takes a team – his team.

“Our day-to-day responsibility is to respond to outages or different repairs for streetlights throughout Oncor’s service area,” said Burleson, Manager over Streetlight Maintenance. “We do have a responsibility to get the lights back on in a certain amount of time, depending on the type of outage.”

Burleson’s team consists of 16 Oncor employees and about 90 contractors who are responsible for maintaining close to 400,000 streetlights across our service territory.

Maintaining streetlights means replacing burned out bulbs or worn-out photo cells, the electric eye that tells the bulb when to come on. It could also mean replacing poles that have fallen over (a “knock down”) as a result outside of typical wear and tear, such as traffic accidents, significant weather events like tornadoes, or construction.

In an average year, streetlight crews handle about 70,000 outage tickets. And of those, about 1,600 result in replacing an old pole with a new one.

“Right now, the largest cause for our outages is from bulbs or photo cells failing,” Burleson said. “The lifespans for those type of materials are relatively short in nature, five to six years.”

And even in Texas, where the winds can blow hard enough to push over trees, the weather rarely topples a streetlight.  Bosque Moore, Manager, Streetlight Reporting & Compliance said, “They’re built and constructed with as much integrity as any other asset that’s put on our system.”

To find and fix burned-out bulbs or rusty poles, Oncor routinely checks the streetlights. It also relies on its customers to report problems. In fact, on the home page of Oncor.com is a big blue button called Report Streetlight Outage.

One click takes you to SLOTS or the Street Light Outage Tracking System, where entering an address brings up a map speckled with yellow, blue and green dots, each representing a streetlight.

When you click on a dot, it turns red. Enter a reason for the outage, if you know it, and your name and contact information, if you want to provide it.

Once you submit the outage, it immediately goes to one of Standard Utility’s techs in the field to complete repairs. Burleson’s team of eight Field Construction Coordinators are charged with overseeing the work of Standard Utility, Oncor’s streetlight maintenance contractor.

“We really do depend on the community to be our eyes,” Burleson said. “The customers, the cities that we serve and our employees. You can report streetlight outages through Oncor.com. Anybody can go there and let us know about streetlight outages and other streetlight maintenance concerns.”

Burleson said while the state no longer regulates how quickly Oncor must repair streetlight outages, Oncor continues to follow the state’s earlier guidelines as a best practice.

That means Oncor replaces burned-out bulbs in five days or less. If a streetlight is out because of damaged cable or circuits, Oncor aims to fix it in 15 days or less. And the company has 30 days to replace a damaged or deteriorated streetlight pole.

“In Texas, there are a lot of people moving here,” Moore said. “A lot of development. All of those new highways and developments need to have lighting. And Oncor, we want to be the company that customers choose.”