EL PASO, TEXAS (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 A heat-related power outage in far East El Paso left more than 4,000 El Paso Electric customers without electricity Tuesday evening as temperatures remained in the triple digits, raising new questions from residents about how the grid will hold up during extreme heat and future growth.<\/p>\n
The outage affected a wide area in far East El Paso. Video posted by FitFam showed moviegoers inside Flix Brewhouse when the power went out. El Paso Electric described the incident as a heat-related outage.<\/p>\n
Jordan Salas reports on Heat-related outage raises grid reliability questions in Far East El Paso (Credit: KFOX)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
RECOMMENDED: Outage hits far east El Paso, leaving over 4,000+ customers without power<\/a><\/p>\n For residents in the impacted neighborhoods, the loss of power meant losing air conditioning and fans during dangerous heat. While people in the area did not want to speak on camera, one man said that when the power went out, he went outside, sat in his car and turned on the A\/C to cool down.<\/p>\n Online, people shared mixed reactions after being asked what concerns they had following the outage. One person wrote, \u201cNone. Normal with the heat. Probably had a few more today.\u201d Another said, \u201cPretty sure they will continue to happen. The more houses built, the more power to spread.\u201d A third comment read, \u201cGet used to it. Wait till the data center is built.\u201d<\/p>\n El Paso Electric said Tuesday\u2019s outage was heat-related and not tied to a data center issue, but some residents said it still raised concerns about reliability as the region grows.<\/p>\n El Paso Electric was asked for an interview about the outage and how the utility responds when extreme heat puts more pressure on the system. <\/p>\n Questions also included what happened on Tuesday, what the system was experiencing during the heat, and what customers should know when demand is high.<\/p>\n KFOX14\/CBS4 also reached out to El Paso Electric CEO Kelly Tomblin asking how the system is preparing for future growth, including large power users like data centers. No response had been received at the time of the report.<\/p>\n The question of future demand has been part of the broader discussion around Meta\u2019s planned data center in Northeast El Paso. <\/p>\n At a recent roundtable, Tomblin said the first 250 megawatts for Meta would come from existing resources. <\/p>\n Questions remain about later phases of the project and how the grid will handle future demand on days when residential customers are also using more power to stay cool.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s outage came as the city begins work on a possible community benefits agreement with Meta, which could include protections tied to electric utilities and ratepayers. <\/p>\n City council members cautioned that any agreement would still depend on Meta agreeing to negotiate.<\/p>\n RECOMMENDED: El Paso council directs staff to draft Meta community benefits agreement for data center<\/a><\/p>\n