About 18,000 in South Austin lose power in outages, city utility says

Energy

More than 18,000 Austin Energy customers were without power Wednesday morning, according the utility's online outage map.

About 11 separate outages that began around 8:52 a.m., affecting 18,291 customers, appeared to be clustered in South Austin, north of William Cannon Drive and south of Texas 71, between West Gate Boulevard and Interstate 35.

Austin Energy on its outage map estimated that work crews would have power restored between 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.

The utility blamed equipment failure at the Salem Hill substation, which is north of West Stassney Lane near Williamson Creek, as the cause of the outages.

More:'Better prepared': Officials say Texas power grid ready for winter, despite concerns

The Austin school district said outages affected several campuses and the administrative office on Wednesday morning.

Power was out at Crockett Early College High School and Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders. Sunset Valley, Joslin, Cunningham, St. Elmo and Odom elementary schools also lost power.

Classes were continuing normally and staff would serve students sack lunches, district officials said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: About 18,000 in South Austin lose power in outages, city utility says