As of 5 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, AEP Texas service crews continue working to restore power to the remaining 875 Abilene area customers still without power.   Restoration of service for an additional 225 customers is anticipated by late this evening.  Service restoration to all remaining customers without power is anticipated by Wednesday evening.

“We have made significant progress in our restoration efforts,” said Greg Blair, AEP External Affairs manager.   “We have reduced the number of outages from 24,500 last night to around 875 this afternoon and expect further progress as the evening continues.  Our focus now is addressing the small pockets of outages which entail repair or replacing downed lines, replacing utility poles and repairing or replacing damaged electrical equipment.  Even with additional crews, this part of the restoration effort is slower than our early focus of replacing fuses, closing breakers or rerouting circuits. 

“Our crews will continue to work throughout the evening,” Blair said.  “We encourage customers who have not reported that they are still without power to call 1-866-223-8508 to ensure that AEP Texas is aware of their outage.  We appreciate the patience that has been shown as we continue to do everything possible to restore power safely and as soon as possible." 

AEP Texas brought in 140 American Electric Power employees and contractors from surrounding areas to assist the 60 local AEP Texas service techs working to restore power in the Abilene area in aftermath of Monday’s storm.