Power restored to thousands in Austin after second day of outages; more outages possible

Power was restored through a “temporary solution” to thousands of Austin Energy customers who saw outages Thursday night, the second consecutive day that thousands lost power amid record-high temperatures.

About 6,400 customers lost power shortly after 8 p.m. Thursday after a transformer at a Southwest Austin substation went offline, the city of Austin said in a news release.

“The hot temperatures expected (Friday) could overload that equipment because of the additional power demand and could cause more outages for the customers in this area,” the news release stated.

The outages primarily affected customers in an area of Southwest Austin near Southwest Parkway and Barton Creek Boulevard, Austin Energy’s outage map showed.

“All affected customers have been switched to other circuits and currently have power,” Austin Energy said in a post on the social platform X at 2 a.m. Friday. “This is a temporary solution. Austin Energy’s work will continue as we seek to make necessary fixes to provide a permanent solution.”

Customers in the Southwest Austin area should be prepared for potential power outages, the electric utility said.

The utility said the outages — like the Wednesday outages, which affected more than 7,000 customers — were “local” and not related to the statewide electric grid. The grid is operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

Temperatures were as high as 107 degrees in Austin on Thursday, breaking a record high for the date at Austin Camp Mabry, according to the National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio. Temperatures reached 109 degrees on Wednesday, the weather service said.

Austin Energy working to prevent more outages, officials say Friday

The 6,400 customers who experienced outages Thursday were redistributed across a number of different circuits so they would regain power, Austin Energy Chief Operating Officer Lisa Martin said during a press conference Friday morning. If any of those circuits has excessive usage on Friday, it could cause equipment to trip out again, she said.

Austin Energy General Manager Bob Kahn said the utility is working on two solutions to prevent more outages. The first is that Austin Energy is testing the existing transformers to see if the equipment can be put back into service. If successful, the equipment could be back in service by Friday afternoon, Khan said. “Plan B,” he said, is that workers are moving a temporary transformer to the Southwest Austin substation to serve customers if it’s needed.

However, the temporary transformer “could take 24 hours to get up and running, so there’s still risk of outages today with that plan,” Khan said during the press conference. “We are looking at all options to solve this issue as fast as possible.”

Wednesday’s outage was caused by high energy usage because of hot temperatures, which “exceeded a threshold on our protection system,” Martin said.

Austin Energy is still conducting lab and field tests to determine the cause of Thursday’s outage, but the utility knows “for certain” that Thursday’s outage was “not related to the heat,” Martin said.

She added that Austin Energy hit a peak demand record earlier this week, but the demand is projected to be lower on Friday.

“That’s good news for this system,” she said.

Austin Energy shares tips to prepare for outages amid ongoing heat

Austin Energy advised customers to review emergency plans and check emergency kits. Customers who experience outages can minimize power surges by turning off appliances, lights and other equipment.

Find cooling center locations and hours of operation at austintexas.gov/alerts .

Austin Energy advised customers to use as little energy as is safely possible, especially between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

These are among the utility’s tips for staying cool while saving energy during the summer:

• Raise your thermostat by a few degrees. Aim for 78 degrees or higher for the biggest energy savings. Set your thermostat to 85 degrees when you are away for two hours or more on a hot day.
• Point fans in your direction to make temperatures around you feel about 4 degrees cooler. In the summer, switch ceiling fans to run counterclockwise to push cool air downward. Only keep fans on when you are in the room.
• Close shades and curtains on windows hit by direct sunlight to prevent heat from getting indoors.
• Provide shade for outside AC units. AC units shaded by trees or other means work more efficiently and use up to 10% less electricity.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Power restored to thousands in Austin after second day of outages; more outages possible