Austin Energy: Heat to blame for equipment failure, blackouts for thousands
Published: Sat, 06/17/23
Austin Energy: Heat to blame for equipment failure, blackouts for thousands
KXAN
by: Tahera Rahman
Posted:
Updated:
AUSTIN (KXAN)– This heat is “almost unbearable,” said Jeanne Rollins.
“Feels like the hottest it’s ever been,” said Rocky Maksoud.
“It went zero to 100 real quick,” said Sam Lahourcade.
That means things like hats for shade, and water bottles.
“As we’re walking, we’re misting ourselves,” said Rollins, who moved to Austin from Colorado and said she’s still grateful for the heat.
But for 8,000 people on Thursday, going inside their homes to escape the heat suddenly wasn’t an option anymore, when their power went out.
Matt Mitchell with Austin Energy said two blackouts were caused by heat-related equipment failure: A high number of people running their air-conditioning caused wires to heat up more than usual, and that combined with high external temperatures.
“At eight o’clock at night or seven o’clock at night when those temperatures are really high, and we’ve been running current through the through those wires all day… It causes stress on the system,” he said.
KXAN asked: Isn’t your equipment weatherized, or treated to handle the heat?
Mitchell said some of it is– like the power plants.
“We’ve got 12,000 miles of of wire that supply energy to individual homes. There is no way to weatherize all of that,” he said.
He said we may see more outages, in the face of more triple-digit heat.
“We don’t ever want to see an outage, we don’t ever want to see equipment failure, but it’s more likely when we see extreme temperatures, both hot and cold, simply because that’s the science behind how electricity moves through those wires,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said Austin Energy is staffed up to respond.
“The most important thing is to make sure that when we have crews ready and on standby in these high temperatures, we’re able to respond as quickly as possible to make sure that that power is restored,” he said.
The agency is asking customers to conserve energy when they can, to lighten the load.
“Be mindful of when you’re running major appliances. Be mindful of what you’re running your [Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning] at during the day,” Mitchell said.
He also encouraged Austinites to have a plan if their power goes out in the heat and know where to go to stay cool.
Mitchell said you can sign up for text messages with Austin Energy to get alerts and updates on power restoration.