Power outages: 171K Texans without power; ERCOT says conservation no longer needed
HOUSTON - As Texas was hit with historic winter storms, many residents were forced to brave the freezing temperatures through power outages.
On Tuesday, more than 4.4 million Texans were without power, that number fluctuated throughout the week as the blame shifted between the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, state government, and the utility companies.
As of 2:30 p.m. Friday, Utility tracker PowerOutage reports more than 171,000 Texans remain without power.
ERCOT tweeted Friday morning that their operations had returned to normal and customers no longer need to conserve energy.
For those in southeast Texas, CenterPoint and Entergy provide power outage trackers.
CenterPoint reports more than 6,300 customers without lights. They say 99% of their customers now have power. To see CenterPoint Energy's map and outage tracker click here.
Entergy reported more than 2,300 customers without power. To see Entergy's tracker and map click here.
Some Texans lost power due to the weather conditions, while others are under a rotating outage initiated by ERCOT, which manages the flow of electric power to more than 26 million Texas customers.