Thousands lose power again Friday morning, Austin Energy says ‘isolated incident’ caused by circuit lockout

May 12, 2023

by: Abigail Jones

Posted: Feb 10, 2023 / 06:46 AM CST

Updated: Feb 10, 2023 / 07:46 AM CST

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Nearly 7,500 Austin Energy customers lost power Friday morning. Austin Energy said the cause was a circuit lockout.

Austin Energy said a circuit lockout is like a safety switch. The utility said the trigger of the lockout was unknown but tweeted that crews were on site making necessary repairs. In a tweet at 7 a.m., Austin Energy said power had been restored to all customers affected by this outage.

The outage lasted close to an hour and a half. It was reported close to the intersection of Meadow Lea Drive and Bill Hughes Road — near William Cannon Drive and South 1st Street — and started at 5:25 a.m.

It was affecting 7,488 customers still at 6:30 a.m., according to the outage map. That number went down to 4,438 by 6:45 a.m., and by 6:53, the outage was resolved.

This comes after thousands of customers waited days to have power restored after losing it during last week's ice storm.

According to Trade Safe, a circuit breaker lockout is a lockout device that prevents unexpected electricity re-energization by keeping circuit breakers in the off position.

These are used during electrical equipment repair, when the power source should be turned off and kept that way until the repair work is done.

Austin Energy said lockouts can be triggered by things like trees falling on lines.

KXAN photographer Jake Sykes went to the area and said traffic lights were out at some intersections for a time, including at South Congress and William Cannon, and South 1st and William Cannon.

There was also a crash reported at South 1st Street and William Cannon in that time period. The Austin Police Department said it was a minor crash involving two vehicles. No injuries were reported.

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.