Grand Prairie opens warming center for residents without heat due to low natural gas pressure

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas — The City of Grand Prairie has opened a warming center for residents who are experiencing low natural gas pressure and without heat. 

The city said the Grand Peninsula and Westchester area are experiencing “very low” natural gas pressure due to cold weather.

The warming center opened at the city’s Public Safety Building located at 1525 Arkansas Lane and will be open through Dec. 25. 

“Atmos Energy had assured city officials after the 2021 arctic blast that homes would not be without natural gas and had completed one of three improvements projects (remaining two to be complete Feb 2023) to avoid what we are currently experiencing,” the city said. 

Several residents across North Texas reported having issues. At this time, Atmos has not reported any outages but did not address any of the issues residents have brought up when asked about them. 

Atmos Energy says it’s closely monitoring the weather and staging employees across the area, but the company urged customers to help with demand by following several tips, including lowering thermostats to 68 degrees, refrain from using large appliances and conserving electricity.

Grand Prairie said if residents experience an outage of natural gas, they should call Atmos at 866-332-8667. 

The Railroad Commission, which regulates gas in Texas, said some of the issues reported are due to “extremely high demand.” 

“Atmos is working to increase the pressure in the system and to continue to work tickets for customers who experienced low-pressure issues. Atmos’ customer call center is open. Additional resources have been added to handle the call volumes and work customer tickets. Atmos Mid-Tex reported there is no gas supply issues overall in the system at this time. The Commission remains in close communication with Atmos and will provide updates as we get them,” said the commission in a statement.