Austin Energy says permanent fix is in place for SW Austin transformer

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin Energy says it has a permanent fix in place at a Southwest Austin substation that went down Thursday night.

The equipment failure required crews to re-route power to restore power to around 6,400 customers.

Austin Energy also says that customer efforts to conserve energy were instrumental and allowed crews to focus on returning the substation to normal operation.

What happened?

At around 8:20 p.m. on Aug. 22, a transformer at a Southwest Austin substation went offline, sending thousands into the dark, according to Austin Energy on Friday. 

Crews responded and worked through the night to simultaneously investigate the cause and temporarily re-route power. All customers were restored within three hours, says Austin Energy. 

Crews were able to trace the outage to a component inside the transformer that failed, which Austin Energy says was not related to heat or energy demand. Multiple tests both in the laboratory and in the field were conducted to find other potential faults as well.

Once tests were completed, Austin Energy deemed it was safe to make permanent repairs to the transformer.  

At 10 a.m. on Aug. 23, customers near the substation were asked to conserve energy while repairs continued. 

Austin Energy says that thanks to those conservation efforts and slightly cooler temperatures, the temporary re-routing of power held up as technicians made permanent repairs to the transformer and brought it back online.