AEP Texas will continue its comprehensive approach to staying prepared for potential outages due to high winds and extreme weather impacting Texas through the weekend and communicating with local authorities across the AEP Texas service territory in efforts to mitigate any weather-related incidents.
AEP Texas would like to thank customers for their patience and trust during today's weather-related outages. One of our pro-active measures to prepare for the weather event included disabling automatic reclosing devices in potentially high-risk areas. This may have caused delays in restoration for some customers because we had to patrol lines before reenergizing circuits. We felt this was the safest approach to restoring electric service in today's weather environment.
AEP Texas also proactively engaged in pre-event activities to fully prepare for this week's high winds and extreme spring weather. Those activities include the following:
- Patrolling lines to mitigate potential faults, including the use of drones. Patrols this week have included critical circuits that could affect community safety such as locations that serve as warming or cooling centers, pump stations, and water treatment facilities.
- Splitting four-man crews into two-man crews to boost our presence in rural communities or locations without an AEP Texas physical location or office. Two-man crews allow for increased presence across the service territory, especially in rural areas, providing better coverage and faster response time to any potential outage or incident. Crews will work day shifts in these areas on Saturday and into next week if needed.
- Adjusting work plans to focus on response. Both transmission and distribution groups have adjusted work schedules to focus on pro-active patrols, monitoring, and responding when needed.
In addition, AEP Texas has collaborated with local emergency management officials, elected officials, municipalities, fire departments, and other external partners to communicate our efforts and enhance communication with community leaders. In some areas, our staff have joined local emergency operation centers working on-site.
Saturday is predicted to bring continued strong winds to the state along with an elevated fire risk through the evening hours.
AEP Texas urges customers to maintain personal safety during periods of extreme weather. Please remember the following safety tips, especially during heavy wind activity:
- Postpone outdoor activities, if possible. Stay safe indoors.
- Beware of flying debris such as tree limbs or lawn furniture when outside during heavy winds.
- Consider all downed power lines energized and dangerous. Do not touch anything in contact with the line, such as trees, fences, or puddles of water.
- Stay at least 10 feet away from any downed power line.
High winds can cause power outages for various reasons. Winds can break trees and limbs that can land on power lines. High winds and blowing debris can also compromise electrical facilities and potentially cause downed power lines.
To report a safety hazard, a downed power line, or a tree hazard, please visit aeptexas.com/outages or call (866) 223-8508.
For more information, please visit AEPTexas.com.