Dear Neighbors, 

I know many of you have experienced power outages, some of you for over 24 hours and ongoing. I appreciate your patience, and I share your frustration with the incomplete communication from Austin Energy. Austin Energy’s outage map failed to reflect the reality on the ground, resulting in inaccurate texts and information from their response system. My office has been working with Austin Energy leadership to make them aware of problems with their system and to help them repair the outages as quickly and as safely as possible.

We have heard from many residents trying to make decisions about what to do tonight and over the weekend. My office just received an update this evening informing us that approximately 6,000 customers are still without power across the entire service area. Of that number, about 1,000 affected customers are in Northwest Hills and Great Hills. Four Austin Energy crews are working through the night in those areas. The safety of our residents and repair crews is our top priority, and the weather conditions are presenting challenges to restoring the power. At this time, Austin Energy has informed us that they cannot provide specific timelines for restoration, and they suggest you make the appropriate decisions for you and your loved ones to stay safe during this time.

I am disappointed by this news, and I know many of you are directly impacted by the current outage. This information is delayed because the crews believed they could get power back on by now, but icy conditions and working in backyards and canyons has prevented that. As noted though, the plan is to work through the night and as long as it takes.

If your power is off, you can help us not overwhelm the system when power comes back on.  Please lower your thermostats, shut off or unplug any fixtures that are connected, and only leave a light on to know when the power is back on. This way when power is on we can gradually add to the load. One of the challenges is that everyone has all electronics on and when a house is re-energized the surge can overwhelm the system causing circuits to trip back out. 

This afternoon, Austin Energy also sent Council a memo with information about what is causing these outages, the difficulties with working in icy weather, and how they are working to fix it. Please read the memo here. Note that ice is worse than snow and this weather is extraordinary. 

I appreciate the many residents who reached out to make us aware of the issues they were experiencing with Austin Energy. I have communicated directly to AE leadership the problems with inaccurate texts about power reconnection, lack of information about crew activity, missing areas on the outage map, and lack of guidance on timelines for repair so residents could plan appropriately. Especially in times of inclement weather and widespread outages, Austin Energy’s communication processes must function better. I have had multiple conversations with Austin Energy leadership over the last two days and they have assured me they are working to improve their communications and their technology to prevent this from happening in the future.

While Austin Energy crews work in the icy weather through the night, please check on your homebound neighbors and seniors. Some of them may have been without power for over 24 hours and may not have a way to contact others so long as the power is out. Please offer help to them if you can during this time.

We are continuing to monitor the situation across the district this weekend and we will share further updates as we receive them. You also can follow Austin Energy on Facebook and Twitter for more information.

Regards, 

Alison Alter

Council Member, District 10