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The demand for energy is high right now and local companies are asking homeowners and businesses to cut back to avoid losing power.

This latest winter blast is causing many to use electricity to run heaters and that is causing a state wide problem with the power grid.

That's why energy officials are conducting rolling blackouts in order to prevent a major grid lock up.

Frank Espinoza with AEP Texas, says we are in a major Crisis.

Around 5:30 Wednesday morning, Electric Reliability Council of Texas required all energy companies in the state to enforce rolling blackouts.

It’s a state wide effort to conserve energy during this winter blast.

Energy officials are asking residents to postpone their washing and drying and other activities that uses a lot of energy until the storm is over with.

Field operations have been out all day monitoring and maintaining the schedule outages.

AEP Texas says scheduled power outages shouldn’t last for more than 30 minutes to an hour.

If you go more than two hours without power, you need to call your local power company.

AEP Texas and other energy companies will continue to the rolling blackouts until the winter storm is over.