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When is the power coming back on? CenterPoint VP says it may vary

The good news -- electricity was restored to some customers today. The bad news -- it may go out for others.

HOUSTON — There are still more than a million people without power in the Houston area. Everyone wants to know when it will be back on.

Even though some of the ice and snow is melting, Kenneth Mercado, VP for CenterPoint Electric Utilities says it just won’t be enough to get everyone their power back today, tonight or possibly even tomorrow.

RELATED: Winter storm updates: Mayor asks downtown buildings not in use to conserve power

The good news -- CenterPoint got power back on for a lot of people at around 4 a.m. Tuesday. We’re told they focused on neighborhoods that lost power first. The bad news is – CenterPoint has to shut other people’s power off to balance the grid.

Those rotating outages will continue tonight.

“How are you determining which neighborhoods are going to lose power next?” we asked him.

“It’s tricky because it is manual,” he said. “We’re looking at areas that haven’t been exposed. It’s a lot of driving and it’s a lot of work. It will be spread out all over. We’ll balance it across the entire area.”

RELATED: Houston power outage map: Here's where the power is out

Mercado says the state is working to get some power plants back online. That will help. But he says people need to be ready for another night with no power.

He’s still asking everyone to conserve energy. Every watt you save is a watt of energy they don’t have to shut off.

 

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