AUSTIN, Texas — Although state leaders this week have ensured Texans that the power grid is prepared for the frigid temperatures gripping Texas Thursday and Friday, heavy winds are still likely to cause localized problems for utility companies around the state.
Early Thursday afternoon, a number of issues were already reported across Central Texas, primarily in Cedar Park where more than 1,500 customers were without power as of 4:30 p.m.
Although a cause has not been specified for that outage, the Cedar Park Police Department reported at 3:49 p.m. that it was responding to Cypress Creek and South Lakeline due to a traffic light outage in the area.
By 8 p.m., Pedernales Electric Co-op reported more than 1,700 meters remained impacted across its service area. As of 10:40 a.m. Friday morning, Pedernales reported that Williamson County had over 900 meters were still impacted by outages.
Also at 10:40 a.m. Friday morning, the Oncor outage map was reporting 1,629 customers without power in the Williamson County area, 290 customers in the Travis County area and 226 customers in the Bastrop County area. Restoration estimates were set at 6 p.m.
Around the same time, Austin Energy was reporting around 797 customers impacted by outages. Meanwhile, Bluebonnet was reporting around 20 outages of its own that affect 2,259 customers.
If you'd like to check in with your energy provider about outages in your area, or report an outage yourself, we've provided links to their local outage pages below:
Meanwhile, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is keeping track of grid and market conditions online. Click here to follow along as the frigid weather continues into the weekend.