Austin Utilities avoids warm weather issues

Published 12:21 pm Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Despite the intense heat this week, Austin Utilities is seeing few electrical issues.

Tom Tylutki, director of electric distribution, said only a few transformers overloaded Monday and Tuesday, and Austin Utilities crews had everything fixed within an hour.

“There’s been few (issues), and that’s been good,” Tylutki said.

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He attributed some of the good luck to people taking the initiative to make their homes greener.

“More energy efficient appliances helps reduce the load,” he said.

Keeping the house warmer — in the mid-70s rather than 60s — and drawing the blinds to keep the sun at bay can help reduce the cost of electricity and minimize the chance of a transformer overloading, he said. Holding off on laundry, dishes or cooking with an oven until sunset keep homes cooler and save energy, as well.

Today’s temps should be a little cooler, as Austin’s high should be around 91 degrees. The high pressure air system that’s caused the warm weather should be broken by a cold front moving into the area this afternoon, causing temps to drop down to 53 degrees tonight. We’ll have temps reaching the mid to high 60s heading into the weekend before temps get back to normal, according to Taylor.

Showers should move into the area Thursday, with a few thunderstorms as well, but Taylor said the storm system shouldn’t produce severe weather.

As the summer wears on, Tylutki hopes to continue providing uninterrupted service to Austin residents.

“We’ve been lucky and it’s been very quiet,” he said. “Very few calls at this point.”