Austin Energy upgrades to cut power overnight in downtown, West Campus amid heat

AUSTIN, Texas — Some Austin residents in downtown and West Campus are preparing to spend part of the night without electricity as Austin Energy temporarily shuts off power to upgrade equipment — a move the utility says is necessary to improve long-term reliability, but one that’s drawing frustration during one of the hottest points of the year.

Austin Energy’s work is part of its Repowering Downtown project, which aims to improve the power grid’s reliability and resiliency. The utility is temporarily shutting down power in select locations of downtown and West Campus for around six hours, starting at 11 p.m. tonight and continuing into the early morning.

People in West Campus said they understand why the upgrades are needed, but they’re concerned about losing power overnight — especially as many say they’re already paying higher electric bills this summer. Residents also said the summer heat has made it harder to keep apartments cool, driving up electricity costs.

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“I hope that it is worth it and it actually does fix the problems,” said Melissa Banda, who lives in West Campus. “Because it’s kind of like, at least during the night, and we’ll be sleeping, but it’s still annoying to deal with.”

Austin Energy said it considered several factors before scheduling the outage. In a statement, the utility said, “We understand that power outages pose an inconvenience…Austin Energy determined it is critical to perform this scheduled outage now.”

The affected locations were notified a week and a half ago about the outages, though some residents said the timing is less than ideal.

Austin Energy was unavailable to comment further this afternoon.