US Texas ends power emergency, forced outages

HOUSTON - The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has ended emergency conditions and forced outages, the council said on Friday.

"We are completely back to normal operations," said Dan Woodfin, ERCOT senior director of system operations, during a virtual press conference on Friday.

Transmission providers are continuing to end the remaining rotating outages, ERCOT CEO Bill Magness said. Some Texans could be experiencing outages from storm damage, which local providers will address.

According to poweroutage.us, as of Friday afternoon, there are over 170,000 customers in Texas that are without power.

As of Friday afternoon, 20 people have died in the US Houston area due to the severe weather and massive blackouts.

According to media reports, the causes of death confirmed by medical examiners included hypothermia and carbon monoxide poisoning.