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Power outages to be limited to 12 hours for Texas customers, utility commission orders

The order was issued Wednesday night after many people in Texas had already gone days without power during the winter storm.

HOUSTON — The Texas Public Utility Commission issued an order saying that no customer should be subject to a power outage of more than 12 hours long.

The order was issued Wednesday night after many people in Texas had already gone days without power during the winter storm.

Editor's Note: The video above is from a report Feb. 17 on how counties that are not part of the Texas grid had fewer outages.

As of 9 a.m. Thursday, 36,246 Houston-area CenterPoint customers were still without power, which was a significant reduction from the night before.

RELATED: Texas counties with fewer power outages are not part of state grid

On Monday, ERCOT had directed transmission operators to reduce the load on the grid due to high electric demand exceeding the supply. The Texas grid is expected to remain at Emergency Alert Level 3 until the severe cold weather event is over.

RELATED: Texas didn't learn its lesson | Experts say little has changed with winterization of generators since blackouts of 2011

“The expectation is that customers will be rotated through outages so that the burden is shared: that no customer’s outage will last so long as to precipitate endangerment and so that all customers shared this burden in as equitable a manner as circumstances will allow,” the order states.

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