Thunderstorms in the lower Rio Grande Valley at 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon caused transmission line outages at the Rio Hondo 345kv switching station and a transmission overload in the area. AEP Texas had to temporarily shed 20 megawatts of electric load affecting approximately 5,000 customers in Donna, Weslaco, La Feria and Mercedes, Texas. Service was restored to most of these customers were restored by 2:25 p.m.

The controlled load shed was limited to the Rio Rico substation (three feeders affecting 2,344 customers) and the Rangerville substation (four feeders affecting 2,437 customers.) There are still 10,000 customers out on seven circuits throughout the Rio Grande Valley due to the weather. Crews are busy working to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.