Austin Energy

Austin Energy is asking Southwest Austin residents to conserve energy, especially between 2-8 p.m., to lower the risk of outages.

About 15,000 people were without power for several hours in East Austin on Wednesday evening. Austin Energy said high demand caused the outage.

Drivers should prepare for bottlenecks as Austin Energy embarks on a project to replace utility poles and upgrade wires along the corridor.

Austin Energy is Austin's city-owned electric utility. That means customers have a greater say in its operations than in other parts of Texas.

Austin Energy says building a new natural gas plant will help meet Austin's energy needs. Members of a citizen oversight group say the utility is shirking its duty to reduce emissions and city climate goals.

Austin Energy and Austin Water officials said equipment, pipes and utility plants have been weatherized to better handle winter. Communication strategies have also been improved so staff can better talk with each other and update the public.

The increase is 5%, or about $2 per month. It will cover the costs the utility spent buying energy from ERCOT earlier in the year. It comes on the heels of another recent hike.

The typical resident will pay $172 more this year. The increases are coming on the heels of inflation hikes on most goods, including groceries and gas.

Findings in the new report indicate the city failed to address some of the same issues identified after the February 2021 freeze.

The restaurant closed Aug. 16 after the city shut off most of its electricity. Now the city is requiring Nixta to go through the permitting process from the beginning before reopening, which could take months.