Rolling blackouts that plagued much of the State of Texas have ended as of Wednesday afternoon, though they could resume later, all due to a massive strain on a statewide power grid.
Early Wednesday morning, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas ordered all power providers to shed a portion of their power loads.

However, by around 1:15 p.m., power providers were notified by ERCOT that the outages could end for the time being. Howerver, outages could resume Wednesday night and Thursday if necessary.

All local power providers using the ERCOT grid -- including Bryan Texas Utilities, CSU, Mid-South Synergy and Navasota Valley -- have been urging customers to reduce power use and turn off all unnecessary electrical equipment.

Entergy Texas customers are not affected because they are not part of ERCOT. Officials there report there is sufficient power for their customers.

There were reports across the region of outages of anywhere from 10 minutes to two-and-a-half hours.
Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst says issues at a pair of power plants, including Oak Grove in Robertson County, were at the root of the problems Wednesday. (Click for more)
If outages resume and your power goes out, you are asked by the providers to turn your heaters off so when the power eventually returns, the load is not as large on the grid. Once power returns, heaters can be turned back on according to the providers.

Local authorities urge drivers to be cautious at lighted intersections if signals are affected.
BTU has asked customers who experience an outage longer than an hour-and-a-half to call 821-5844, which has been designated for this specific incident. Anything longer than 90 minutes may be a full outage as opposed to part of the rolling outages.

City officials are also urging people not to call 9-1-1 to report an outage.
According to a BTU spokesperson, the provider was first informed of ERCOT's order to conduct rolling outages just before 6:00 a.m. Wednesday.

BTU was the first power provider to contact News 3 about the grid emergency and local outages at 6:35 a.m., this after Brazos Valley This Morning reported numerous calls to the newsroom about viewers' power being out. Other providers quickly followed with information about the rolling outages.
Statements from BTU and CSU are listed below.
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The following statement was issued by Bryan Texas Utilities Wednesday morning:
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas manages the flow of electric power in the State of Texas. They have issued an alert to BTU and all electric utilities in the state to shed power temporarily. BTU is appealing to its customers to please turn off unnecessary electric equipment. The entire state is affected. All utilities are mandated to do this. If customers can reduce usage temporarily, it will help keep the state grid up and minimize the number of mandated outages.
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The following statement was issued by the City of College Station Wednesday morning:
College Station Utilities customers, both residential and commercial, may experience 5-10-minute power outages today through rolling brown-outs. This move has been ordered by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, in order to avoid any catastrophic failure of the state’s electric grid due to the winter storms affecting much of Texas.
According to CSU Manager David Massey, non-emergency main lines could be affected throughout the day. Hospitals and other critical functions will not be included in the brown-outs.
It’s unknown how long this emergency period will last, but ERCOT officials are expected to communicate with the state’s utilities throughout the day.