Power restored for 6,300 El Paso Electric customers in Lower Valley after potential heat outage

Over 6,300 El Paso Electric customers in the Lower Valley lost power just before 5 p.m. in significant outages that utility officials said may be to blame on hot weather.

By 5:45 p.m., a utility spokesman indicated power had been restored to all those impacted.

That spokesman earlier told ABC-7 that the problem appeared to the result of higher energy consumption due to air conditioning usage in the 100-degree afternoon temperatures.

However, the spokesman later emphasized that crews were still investigating to determine the exact cause of the outage.

An El Paso Electric map showed the thousands of customers affected were the result of three separate outages in the Lower Valley area, two along Alameda Avenue and another just off Loop 375.

Police also reported traffic lights did not work in those clusters during the outage, causing scattered problems for motorists.