Winter storm: Xcel Energy reports few outages

Xcel Energy reported few power outages in Amarillo by 9 a.m.

A 9 a.m. tweet by the company's social media team about 2,125 customers without power in Amarillo was in error.

"That's really reflecting a systemwide number, mostly on the South Plains," Xcel spokesman Wes Reeves said. "We don't have any widespread outages in Amarillo that this time.

Reeves said customers at Hale Center and New Deal experienced outages earlier today, but much of that problem has been addressed.

Outages that have occurred in Amarillo have been service-level outages, meaning problems affecting lines to customers or transformers, rather than transmission line problems affecting larger population groups. Reeves said.

Service-level outages affect fewer people, but they take longer for crews to get to because they more spread out, he said.

The company has extra crews on hand to react if the wind picks up and more power outages occur, Reeves said.