Austin Energy apologizes for ‘imperfect communication’ after outage notification delay

AUSTIN (KXAN) — On a bitingly cold night, Jennifer Walker said she was left in the dark — literally and figuratively.

“We kept getting error messages on the Austin Energy system,” she said. “This is not a first-time thing. It has happened before.”

When freezing temps set in Sunday, Austin Energy crews were called out to repair an underground power line in the Spanish Oaks neighborhood. Nearby, at the Homestead in Bee Cave, the power went out in the morning, came back briefly, and went out again around 7:45 p.m., according to Walker.

She tried to report the second outage to Austin Energy. Text messages show two error messages in response saying: “Your registration request was not processed correctly.” Walker shared another text message from a neighbor who also tried to report the outage but received the same error response.

She called Austin Energy and was transferred to 311, which is staffed on weekends. She said the operator told her she “had power,” “needed to reset our circuit breakers,” and that they “didn’t see a problem” on the outage map, she recalled.

“And, we said: ‘No. Honestly. We’re out out of power,'” she recalled.

“We started a mass rally with all the neighbors trying to back-door some communication into Austin Energy,” she said. “We kept trying to pass messages around between all of us about what was happening and who knew what.”

Four hours later, at 11:40 p.m., Austin Energy sent a text alert saying an outage “may be affecting” the area.

The estimated restoration time given was midnight. Power was finally restored around 1:20 a.m., text alerts show.

Walker’s neighbor, Kate Austin, was able to successfully report the outage. She said she never received text message updates but her husband did — several hours after the power went out for a second time that day.

“When you’re in your house and it’s cold and dark,” said Austin, “you know, it feels like a really long time.”

She added it “would have been good” to have received any message sooner stating Austin Energy was aware of the situation and looking into it.

On Monday, Walker said someone from Austin Energy called to apologize.

“He said the system crashed and he said the upgrades were not sufficient that were done. He said they need more upgrades, they need more power, more education for 311, they need more staffing on 311 and they just need more funds allocated,” Walker said.

Walker could not recall the name or title of the person who she said called her. Austin Energy could not confirm the remarks.

As of Monday, power outages in Austin remained low. In the morning, around 1,000 customers were impacted. By early afternoon, that number dropped to 109. By 7:30 p.m., it was 177.

AUSTIN POWER OUTAGES: Check to see the latest power outage updates from Austin Energy

‘Imperfect communication’

Austin Energy blamed Walker’s error message on a “glitch.” A spokesperson apologized for the “imperfect communication” and said they are looking into ways to “improve our communication and better inform” residents.

“We apologize for the imperfect communication to our neighbors that are in that area impacted by the outage on Sunday,” said Austin Energy spokesman Matt Mitchell. “Making the repair to the underground power line required several different steps as the extent of the damage became clearer. Our crews thought they had a way to safely re-route power to work on the underground cable, but had to change course to different measures.”

“Austin Energy makes every effort to arrive at a realistic estimated restoration time even when it has to change based on new findings or information,” Mitchell added. “We are reviewing the situation among multiple departments today to see where we can improve our communication and better inform our neighbors during situations like this.”

Asked if four hours is normal for someone to be notified by text of an outage, and given an estimated repair time, Mitchell said it’s not “uncommon” and “not completely out of the ordinary.”

“I would say it’s still too long,” Mitchell said. “That’s what we’re talking about in meetings. I’ve been in several meetings already this afternoon talking about how we can do better with that. It’s accurate to say that in any circumstance that probably should be shorter.”

At an afternoon news conference on Monday, Austin Energy General Manager Bob Kahn said there had been “very few” outages so far. He had not heard about the new frustrations over Austin Energy’s communication with residents — a problem that raised similar questions almost a year ago.

“I have not heard that but I will check into that,” Kahn said. “Apologize to the viewers if that’s happening. It should not be happening.”

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