EPE Apologetic, Officials Offer Hope

Another day of frigid temps brought with it more rolling blackouts and more anger on Friday.

Based on the e-mails and phone calls ABC-7 has received, much of that anger is aimed at El Paso Electric.

Officials with the electric company gave a news conference Friday afternoon to update residents on the generators and those blackouts.

At the news conference EPE officials were very apologetic, but they did offer some potentially good news.

El Paso Electric officials confirm there haven’t been any more blackouts since noon and they are cautiously optimistic.

Also, two of the power plants are slowing coming online.

EPE officials reported part of the Newman power plant is now up and running — that means the rolling blackouts have stopped.

EPE gave journalists a tour of the Newman plant to show what exactly went wrong.

Basically, a lot of the equipment, which is exposed, just froze.

Officials explained plants in El Paso aren’t designed for zero and subzero temperatures. EPE officials said they are designed to handle extreme heat.

During the news conference EPE officials, including CEO David Stevens, said what happened is unacceptable. Stevens said he realizes why a lot of people are very upset.

Richard Fleager, EPE customer care and external affairs vice president said, “What’s taking place is we cut off based upon blocks, clocks of energy and so we pick particular areas, and generally when we talk about controlled blackouts. That blackout doesn’t happen on one part of the city. It’s really balancing the load, so we’ll take parts on the west side, the northeast, the east so everything stays balanced.”

When asked if the plant could have done anything to keep this equipment from freezing, EPE officials said they tried adding insulation, but they admit they only did that after everything started failing.

So when will things be back to normal?

The officials said the plants need at least 48 hours of above freezing temps to get everything thawed out, but of course it is expected to freeze again Friday night.