Some residents living in downtown Austin and near West Campus may experience a temporary power outage July 12 starting at 11 p.m. The planned outage will last for six hours.
What’s happening
Austin Energy crews will be upgrading electric equipment downtown. This work is part of its Repowering Downtown initiative to replace old infrastructure and build up power capacity, as previously reported by Community Impact.
Due to “complex” infrastructure in the area where crews are working, the work will affect two separate areas across the downtown Austin area. One property might have an outage while another across the street does not, according to Austin Energy officials.
Power may go on and off during the service time, and some customers may have their power restored sooner than others.
Austin Energy is unable to provide Community Impact with a map of the impacted areas, citing security reasons.
Next steps
Ways to prepare for the planned power outage, according to Austin Energy, include:
- Keeping refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible
- Unplugging sensitive electronics, such as televisions and computers
- Keeping homes at a temperature between 67 and 70 degrees before the outage to keep it cool as long as possible
- Use a battery-operated fan and layered sheets to stay cool during the outage
Going forward
Additional outages in other parts of the city are planned for the remainder of the year, according to Austin Energy.
