By KRWG News
Clovis, NM – Extreme cold in eastern New Mexico is being blamed for an early morning power outage Tuesday that delayed the start of school for two hours in Clovis.
Utility officials say the cold temperatures and overloaded circuits caused nearly 1,000 Clovis customers to lose electrical service for less than two hours.
Xcel Energy workers discovered the outage about 6:45 a.m. and began shifting power loads throughout the system, redistributing them.
Xcel spokesman Wes Reeves says power was restored in phases, with everything restored by 8:10 a.m.
Reeves says overloading occurs when everyone gets up at about the same time and starts turning up the heat and using appliances.
There was another outage of only a few minutes at 10:30 a.m., and Reeves warns there could be more if extreme cold lingers.
Area temperatures dipped to around 10 degrees Monday night.
___
Information from: Clovis News Journal, http://www.cnjonline.com
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.