Winter storm leaves over 250,000 U.S. customers without power

Over 250,000 homes and businesses in central and the southern U.S. were without power on Monday, data from PowerOutage.us showed, after a winter storm brought snow, ice and freezing temperatures. The U.S. is bracing for disruptions as blizzard conditions persist in several states. The storm is expected to move offshore late on Monday, but it will be replaced by Arctic air, lowering daytime temperatures significantly, the National Weather Service said. Governors in several states, including Kansas, Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia and Virginia, have declared states of emergency. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on Sunday announced a weather watch from Jan. 6-10, citing anticipated cold weather across its region, which is expected to increase electrical demand and could reduce reserves. However, grid operations are forecast to remain normal during the ERCOT weather watch. CenterPoint Energy Indiana reported the highest number of affected customers, with 61,417 clients without power, followed by Appalachian Power Company in West Virginia, with 31,242 clients without power. Here are the major outages by State: Kentucky83,837 Indiana64,599 Illinois44,838 Missouri33,432 West Virginia32,937 Total Out259,647 —Anmol Choubey, Reuters