How We Restore Power

Sep 15, 2023

Austin Energy has crews on standby 24/7 to respond immediately to power outages, and we repairmost routine outages within a short period of time.

Our lineworkers are well-trained and highly skilled. In fact, they’re some of the best in Texas, ready to serve the community whenever they are needed.

Each power outage is a complex event. Crews often work through challenging conditions such as darkness, wind, rain, and flooding to locate, assess, coordinate, repair, and restore each outage they come across.

Watch our video How We RestorePower to learn more about the potential causes of power outages and the steps we take to safely restorepower.

Restoring power in this order can mean that some homes may have power restored while others around them have not.

Download How We Restore Power (pdf)

During severe weather like major thunderstorms and freezing rain, it is not uncommon to have widespread power outages and several hundred repair locations. Austin Energy sends multiple crews out to make repairs, but the crews must drive to each location to work as safely, quickly, and efficiently as possible. We place the highest priority on the safety of our crews and our customers, and it can take multiple hours or even days to restore power to all customers.

Once Austin Energy fully assesses the outage, we provide an estimated time of restoration. Outage conditions are posted on the Austin Energy OutageMap. Customers signed up to receive Outage Alerts will have updates texted to them via their mobiledevice.

During a large or complex outage event, Austin Energy may suspend providing an estimated time of restoration until damage can be safely assessed.

As the situation evolves and the extent of the damage becomes clearer, the estimated time of power restoration canchange. We make every effort to arrive at a realistic estimated restoration time based on the availability of ourlineworkers, the extent of the damage, and the safety of our employees and customers.

If you have more questions, we may have them covered on our FAQ page.