About 7,300 Austin Energy customers lost power Wednesday after a man attempted to steal ground wiring at an energy substation.
Austin Energy spokesman Ed Clark said the power outage started at 3:20 p.m. and was restored about two hours later. The affected area stretched north from the Colorado River to 54th Street and west from U.S. Highway 183 to Chicon Street, he said. Traffic signals also shut down due to the outage. Clark said crews restored power to areas near Highway 183 and other high-traffic locations first. Police said they did not know if the outage caused any car accidents, but officers were looking into it.
"It affected a good part of East Austin," Clark said. "Our crews frankly did a very good job. They had to do switching in the field at other substations so those customers could get served through other feeders."
Clark said the problem originated with a man attempting to steal active ground wiring from the Kingsbury energy substation, located near Highway 183 and Springdale Road. One individual suffered severe burns after coming into contact with electrical equipment at the scene and was airlifted to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio where he remains in critical condition with 100 percent of his body burned, Clark said.
He said police determined that the injured individual was likely the one stealing copper wiring. The man may have received an electrical surge of about 80,000 volts.
"He was cutting a wire that goes from the equipment into the ground," Clark said. "This a favorite target of those who are after copper because you can possibly cut a wire that is a grounding wire and remove it. The problem is, if you touch equipment in certain ways or in two connection points, you can be, of course, shocked."
Clark said copper wire theft has increased over the past few years.
"The theft of copper wire has become a very big problem across the country, not only from electric utility infrastructure but also at homes, just related to air conditioners sitting outside of homes," he said. "This is a very, very serious reminder that attempting to steal copper wiring from electrical equipment and especially anything that is part of the electric system in your community is very, very dangerous."
Be the first to comment on this article!