Triple Digit Heat Putting a Strain on El Paso’s Power Grid

This past winter, we here in El Paso didn't have to deal with the issues the rest of Texas did when it came to power outages. We aren't on the same grid as the rest of Texas, which meant the Texas grid's failure during the winter storm didn't hit us.

Apparently the recent stretch of triple digit heat in El Paso is starting to cause issues for our power grid though. In early June, we hit 100 plus degrees for 6 straight days in El Paso.  This heat wave has caused a pretty big strain on the El Paso grid.

El Paso Electric said there were 240 power outages across its system - which affected 52,982 customers.

Not all the power outages were related to the heat however. Some other factors that caused power outages are:

• Mylar balloons
• Wildlife
• Motor vehicles

Alejandro Ayala, a distribution dispatch outage analyst for EPE said:

The high temperatures actually put a lot of strain on our grid. Of course, you know, we all crank up the A/C.

Anthony Ramos, a distribution line crew supervisor for the utility company added:

Anything above 105 or 107, we have several transformers starting to blow at one time.

There are some recommendations to help the El Paso Electric Power Grid and keep it from shutting down. First, keep your thermostat at 78 degrees. I can already tell some of you reading this are immediately saying to yourself "no f***ing way." Well, it's what the recommend. And, if you're going to leave your house for more than four hours, they suggest turning your AC off completely.