February 2, 2011 ? TX – Texans could find themselves in the dark over the next day or two, not because of the bitter cold and ice that struck this week, but in response to an alert issued by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) this morning.

At about 5:30am. ERCOT declared a Level 3 Emergency Energy Alert, indicating that transmission for West-North zones was at maximum capacity from 2/2/11 through 2/3/11. Concurrent with the emergency alert was an announcement issued jointly by ERCOT and several other utilities to employ rolling blackouts across Texas in an effort to curtail the load on our grid.

Texans are being strongly encouraged to reduce electricity consumption as much as possible to help combat the supply shortage. Try to stick to only necessary lighting and the bare minimum of electronic devices needed. Use fireplaces and gas heating for warmth, if you have them available.

Please remember that the rolling blackouts we may experience are being controlled by the Transmission and Distribution Utility (TDU) (Oncor, AEP, Centerpoint, TNMP or Sharyland). Retail electric providers will have no control over outages or restoration of service.

If you have questions or you need to report an outage, please contact your primary TDU at their toll free phone number (listed below for your convenience).

Oncor: 1-888-313-4747
AEP: 1-866-223-8505
Centerpoint: 1-800-332-7143
TNMP: 1-888-866-7456
Sharyland: 1-986-668-9551