Austin Energy announces 10-year electric resiliency plan

Austin Energy's 10-year plan

Austin Energy has announced a $735 million 10-year plan to improve their infrastructure to better withstand severe weather. This comes after a year of stakeholder meetings and analysis.

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin Energy has announced a $735 million 10-year plan to improve their infrastructure to better withstand severe weather. 

This comes after a year of stakeholder meetings and analysis. 

What they're saying:

"It's a living plan to improve reliability in Austin," David Tomczyszyn, vice president of electric system engineering and technical services at Austin Energy, said.

The three worst weather events for Austin Energy have happened in the last five years: the winter storms in 2021 and 2023, plus the microburst storm in May. The hope is to prevent lengthy outages when there is severe weather. 

Austin Energy speaks on severe storms

A severe storm in May was recorded as Austin Energy's third worst in the utility's history.

"Even with winter approaching, we're actively out there right now making upgrades, and we will continue to do that every day for the next 10 years," Tomczyszyn said.

Austin Energy also recently did a study to see how feasible it would be to bury power lines. It would cost $50 billion to do that.

"That's cost prohibitive, but it is still a tool in our tool belt. When we look at it section by section, we're going to be evaluating all options," Tomczyszyn said. "Many times the hardening approach is not only faster, but more economical, is better used, more bang for your buck, if you will, for our customers' money."

2026 Austin Energy priorities

Big picture view:

• Expand the circuit hardening program to 10 circuits. Circuit hardening means upgrading overhead lines with stronger equipment to withstand damage.
• Proactively replace 40 segments of underground cable.
• Begin wildfire circuit hardening and apply it to 10 circuits in high wildfire risk areas, like an "oven mitt" for power poles.
• Aligning vegetation management, which means tree trimming, with risk & hardening efforts.
• Inspecting 8,000 poles.
• Deploying 30 main line reclosers and 100 lateral reclosers in strategic locations.A recloser is an automatic switch on power lines that detects faults, briefly cuts power to clear temporary issues (like a branch falling) and then automatically recloses to restore power, significantly reducing outage time.
• A recloser is an automatic switch on power lines that detects faults, briefly cuts power to clear temporary issues (like a branch falling) and then automatically recloses to restore power, significantly reducing outage time.
• Conduct circuit optimization studies.

The plan is built into the annual budget for the next 10 years. The $735 million is broken down like this:

• $340 for vegetation management and wildfire mitigation.
• $280 million for circuit hardening, pole inspection, sectionalization and automation.
• $115 million for intelligent systems, grid analytics and progress dashboard.