(FROM AN AEP TEXAS NEWS RELEASE)
(CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS – February 18, 2021) AEP Texas restored electric service to approximately 150,000 customers overnight late Wednesday into Thursday morning as more generation came online in ERCOT. We are actively working to restore power to customers throughout our service territory.
Crews are working around the clock to restore power to all impacted customers. We know many of our customers have endured a difficult week, and it is not over. Thank you for your continued patience as we continue to restore power. In some cases, it might take longer to restore some customers than expected. This is due to severe weather in Texas today, or if we encounter damage to our electrical grid. These repairs must be completed before we can fully energize our lines. We are addressing all of these issues.
“AEP Texas crews and dispatchers worked through the night to restore as many customers as we could based on the generation that became available on the grid,” said Jeff Stracener, vice president of Distribution Region Operations. “We will be working around the clock until we get every customer who can take power back in service.”
At 10:15 a.m. Thursday, approximately 124,000 customers remained without power, down from a peak of approximately 468,000 customers on Tuesday morning.
“We are not out of the woods yet,” Stracener said. “We have some extremely cold weather ahead of us today and tomorrow. If you have power, please continue to conserve your energy usage. Turn off appliances you are not using, turn off lights – let’s all do our part to make sure we do not put another strain on the grid, which could lead to more mandated load sheds and power outages.”
Customers who do not have power are asked to place all appliances in the “Off Position.” This will help crews restore power more quickly. While we energize circuits and groups of customers, sometimes very large numbers of customers at once, our AEP Texas Outage Map may not immediately reflect accurate numbers. Please give the system some time to update.
Please continue to stay safe. Listen to safety alerts from your local authorities. You can find warming centers around the state at this link: https://tdem.texas.gov/warm/, or by visiting AEPTexas.com.