The majority of electric customers impacted by the downtown Laredo underground electric network failure Thursday evening are back in service.
 
At 2 p.m. today, 105 of the 143 mostly commercial customers were placed back in service after AEP Texas crews worked overnight and throughout the day to restore power.
 
An estimate on when the remaining customers will receive service will be given tomorrow morning after crews have had a chance to complete their damage assessment and clean out damaged electrical equipment.
 
A cause for the network failure has not been determined and is still under investigation.
 
Underground electric network crews from Columbus, Ohio, arrived in Laredo this afternoon and will be briefed about the job and given work assignments this evening.
 
“We understand that downtown Laredo customers have been greatly inconvenienced by this outage and we are working to get service restored as quickly and safely as possible,” said Bruce Evans, AEP Texas vice president of Distribution Systems Operations.
 
Evans said crews will work in shifts around the clock until service is fully restored.
 
AEP Texas will continue to inform the remaining 38 customers without power of the restoration efforts.
 
Customers are asked to not use a generator until AEP Texas isolates its electric system. Portable generators can “back feed” electricity up the line and risk the lives of repair workers and the public.