AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Austin Energy officials are asking customers on the city's southwest side to conserve electricity Friday afternoon, hours after thousands of customers lost power due to a failed transformer.
According to the utility, a transformer at a substation in Southwest Austin went offline around 8:20 p.m. Thursday night, cutting power to 6,400 customers. Crews were able to restore electricity to those customers by rerouting through other equipment, but officials say that is only a temporary solution.
Crews will test the transformer Friday morning to see if it can be returned to service; the utility says if those test results are favorable, that equipment could be back in service Friday afternoon to lower the risk of outages. The utility is also working to position a temporary transformer to serve customers; work to install that transformer could take up to 24 hours.
With temperatures expected to still reach into the triple digits Friday afternoon, Austin Energy is asking customers in southwest Austin to conserve power Friday afternoon, between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. That includes raising thermostats by a few degrees, closing shades and curtains on windows hit by direct sunlight to prevent heat from getting indoors, avoiding turning on the oven during the hottest time of the day, and unplugging appliances, chargers and electronic devices when not in use.
