Austin Energy is working on repairs after a transformer in Southwest Austin went offline Thursday night, leaving thousands of people without power for several hours. The public utility restored power to the 6,400 customers affected by 2 a.m. Friday, but said it was a "temporary fix."
While Austin Energy works on a more permanent solution, residents in the area could see more power outages Friday as Austin braces for another day of near triple-digit temperatures.
Bob Kahn, general manager for Austin Energy, said the utility is exploring all options to get the issue solved as quickly as possible.
"I want to assure you we are not going to stop working on this until we find a permanent solution," he said.
The National Weather Service expects heat index values up to 108 degrees. A heat advisory has been issued for parts of the area.
Lisa Martin, chief operating officer for Austin Energy, said as temperatures climb, equipment could get overloaded and cause more outages.
“It's possible that different people have a power outage today than the people who were affected last night," she said.
Austin Energy is asking Southwest Austin residents to conserve energy, especially between 2-8 p.m., to lower the risk of outages. They can do that by raising thermostats by a couple degrees, closing shades and curtains, limiting use of ovens, and unplugging appliances and electronic devices that aren't being used. More conservation tips are available on Austin Energy's website.
To find a temporary fix Thursday, the utility took the 6,400 customers affected and redistributed them across a number of different circuits, Martin said. But that could come at a cost.
"If any one of those circuits has excessive usage then it could trip that [transformer] out," Martin said. It's unclear how many customers that would impact. "Sometimes that's 1,000 people, sometimes it’s 3,000 people. It really depends.”
Similar to the outage in East Austin on Wednesday, the cause is a local issue and not related to the state's electric grid, the utility said.
Martin said Austin Energy is monitoring transformers and bringing in extra crews should outages occur. She said AE is also in contract with the Homeland Security and Emergency Management office should cooling center hours need to be extended.
Residents can find information about public cooling centers and their hours here.
