The risk of rolling blackouts looms over Texas as people crank up their air conditioners to cope with . But the head of indicated today that he doesn鈥檛 have a direct way to alert consumers before the lights go out.
鈥淚 understand the concern. We have that concern too,鈥� Austin Energy CEO told Austin City Council members during a public meeting today at City Hall.
鈥淲e have no way to really contact [customers]. We鈥檝e talked about reverse 9-1-1. We cannot tie up the 9-1-1 system and do that,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not - quote, unquote - an emergency, but it does put people in a very difficult situation, and potentially a health threatening situation if they don鈥檛 know.鈥�
Weiss said Austin Energy currently relies on local media to warn the public of looming blackouts by sending releases to local news outlets. But he said that can be problematic because it encourages people to turn on their television sets. And media organizations may not convey the information rapidly enough to provide adequate advance warning.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be fast, and we鈥檙e going to have to react,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e know it鈥檚 going to probably be on the edge this afternoon and people should be prepared for it.鈥�
The initiated the past two days, and came close to on Wednesday. Level 2 requires some industrial operations, mostly chemical factories along the Gulf Coast, to power down their operations. They are paid for the inconvenience.
Energy Emergency Alert , , results in rolling blackouts across the state. The blackouts are supposed to be only 15 to 45 minutes in duration. But as we saw during the winter, they can sometimes last longer.
Following the winter energy crisis, that they weren鈥檛 given enough advance warning of the blackouts.
鈥淚f we had an ability to have a warning light in their house or something that like that, that this was coming, we would do it,鈥� Weiss said.
