"We are seeing more extensive damage," said David Caplan, a spokesman for Entergy, who estimated it could take more than three weeks to completely restore power to customers.

CenterPoint Energy Inc. (CNP), which delivers power to most of the Houston area, said 2.1 million of its 2.26 million customers were without power. The company's high-voltage power grid suffered damage as well. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state's power grid, said 95 transmission lines in CenterPoint's territory had been disabled by the storm.  ...
Getting power back following Ike will be essential to restart oil refineries, many of which shut down ahead of Ike but appear to have suffered little damage from the storm. The U.S. Department of Energy estimated Friday that 3.55 million barrels a day of refining capacity in the Gulf has been shut in, or more than 20% of nationwide capacity of 17.6 million barrels a day.

The Colonial Pipeline (Houston - NY) was closed down Friday, 12 Sep, ahead of Ike's landfall.

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