Electric System
How We Keep Your Lights On
Getting power to our individual customers is a combination of generating electricity, transmitting it through the shared state grid and then distributing that power throughout our service area to our individual customers.
All of that is done behind the scenes, so that whenever you flip the switch, your lights turn on.
Our Electric System
Austin Energy has more than 12,000 miles of distribution and transmission lines — that's enough to stretch about halfway around the world. We work around the clock to maintain the integrity of our system to ensure we deliver safe, clean, and reliable power to our customers.
The Austin Energy electric system serves a 437 square mile area, including Austin and portions of Travis, Williamson, and Hays counties.
Transmission and Distribution Infrastructure
| Transmission Lines | 633 miles |
| Distribution Lines | 12,164 miles |
| Overhead Transformers | 44,308 |
| Transmission and Distribution Substations | 79 |
| Distribution Poles | 161,807 |
| Pad-mounted and Underground Transformers | 44,193 |
| Transmission Structures | 4,753 |
Our Reliability Ratings Are Among the Best
Despite all of the moving parts and distance the electricity is traveling, as a system, we work to provide reliable
energy to customers. The reliability of an energy system such as ours is measured in different ways,
including SAIDI and SAIFI.
- SAIDI, or System Average Interruption Duration Index, measures the total duration of an outage for an average customer.
- SAIFI, or System Average Interruption Frequency Index, is the average number of sustained interruptions per consumer during the year.
Essentially, these averages measure how long the average outage lasted and how frequently outages occurred. These averages will fluctuate depending on factors such as severe and inclement weather that can cause more widespread damage to the electrical system and cause longer outages.
We continuously challenge ourselves to improve our SAIDI and SAIFI ratings by investing in equipment upgrades and maintenance.
| Standard | Texas Electric Utilities Average | FY 2021 Austin Energy Metrics |
| CAIDI — The customer's average interruption duration in minutes | 101.24 minutes | 85.26 minutes |
| SAIFI — The system’s average number of times service was interrupted | 1.37 interruptions | 0.72 interruptions |
| SAIDI — The system's average interruption duration in minutes | 177.67 minutes | 61.39 minutes |
Tree Pruning Reduces Outages
Our tree pruning program is critical to ensuring system reliability, especially during storms.
Outage Response Crews Stand Ready Anytime, Day or Night
Austin Energy has crews on standby around-the-clock, ready to respond quickly to outages. Using a state-of-the-art outage management system, Austin Energy is able to pinpoint the area of an outage and more efficiently assign crews to make repairs and restore power.
We Monitor Power Quality
We work very closely with power sensitive companies such as high-tech manufacturing facilities. Austin Energy offers a full range of services to provide backup power and associated services that allow companies to monitor their electrical use online.
The Smart Grid Improves Customer Service
A smart grid is made up of an electric grid, a communications network, hardware, and software. Our smart grid provides quicker outage restoration and better energy efficiency.
Date last reviewed or modified: 07/19/2021