Austin Energy Storm Outage Updates

January 25, 2012

7:00 p.m. Update 

 Power was restored to all but about 20 Austin Energy customers by 1:00 p.m. today, in response to the overnight storm activity. 

Customers remaining without power at that time were in two locations where the storm left extraordinary damage to homes, trees and/or the electric system. Basically, the electric system needed to be rebuilt in the two locations.  

Crews replaced four power poles that had snapped just off Highway 290 at Springdale Road. Two power poles are being replaced in the Springdale Road/Ferguson Lane neighborhood area. In both locations, extensive tree debris clearance was necessary, which took much of the day. In the Springdale Road/Ferguson Lane area huge trees were toppled and uprooted.

Power is now restored to the Highway 290/Springdale location.

Power should be restored to the Springdale/Ferguson neighborhood location by late this evening.

Images directly below were taken during the power restoration process in the two areas described above:

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11:00 a.m. Update

 

About 400 Austin Energy customers remain without power from the overnight storm. The largest outage was caused by tree limbs on power lines and involved about 500 customers in the Congress Avenue/Annie Street neighborhood. Power was restored to the area at 10:28 a.m. 

 

More than 35 Austin Energy repair crews are currently working to restore power to all customers. Repairs are needed at about 43 locations. One very intense part of the restoration effort centered around storm damaged homes, uprooted trees and downed power lines in the Springdale Road/Ferguson Lane area (photos below). In that location, several poles must be replaced and lines and equipment reset.

  

Customers should report all outages by calling 322-9100.

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7:00 a.m. Update

Approximately 2000 Austin Energy customers are currently without power, with repairs needed at about 80 locations. Field crews are fully deployed in the outage restoration efforts. Completing all repairs – with some outage calls still coming in -- could take into the afternoon. Customers are asked to report power outages by calling 322-9100. 

 6:15 a.m. Update

 

About 2,800 Austin Energy customers are without power at this hour due to area thunderstorm activity. This number is down from an earlier figure of about 5,000, occurring at 4:45 this morning. 

Austin Energy estimates repairs are currently needed at 70 to 80 locations. The challenge is getting crews to all locations as quickly as possible in rush hour traffic.

Customers can help speed up the outage response effort in this way: All customers who have an outage—should call in their outage to 322-9100. This helps our Outage Management System better pinpoint the piece of equipment that may be responsible for a particular outage. For instance, a transformer (grey box at the top of a power pole) generally serves 6 to 12 homes. If a transformer trips offline and most or all of the homes affected call in the outage, the Outage Management System will point to the transformer, because the system is looking for a common piece of equipment or section of power line serving the affected customers. This allows Austin Energy repair crews to go straight to the problem and make the repair. If only a few customers call in an outage – that broadens the range of equipment that must be checked.