Nine-hour power outage in Llano; crews work through the night
Crews from Llano, the Lower Colorado River Authority, and the Central Texas Electric Cooperative teamed up to fix a major power outage in Llano on the night of Tuesday, May 26. Photo contributed by Llano Volunteer Fire Department President Bryan Rogers
A transformer failure at a Lower Colorado River Authority substation in Llano left thousands of the city’s residents without power for about nine hours during a severe storm on the night of Tuesday, May 26. Llano city crews, LCRA technicians, and Central Texas Electric Cooperative staff worked through the night to restore electricity to the area.
According to the LCRA, the substation failed at around 5:50 p.m. on Tuesday and it was determined that “the equipment could not be restored.” A mobile transformer was brought in and power was eventually back on by around 3:04 a.m. on Wednesday after hours of labor from a joint team of Llano, LCRA, and CTEC personnel.
“The cause of the equipment failure is still under investigation,” reads a statement issued to DailyTrib by the LCRA.
The LCRA substation in Llano is north of the city, on Birmingham Avenue. Llano pulls its power from the substation using its own transformer and transmission lines.
The outage was all encompassing, leaving traffic lights out, storefronts dark, city facilities closed, residences powerless, and internet absent late into the night.
“People are used to having very reliable service. These types of outages happen,” Llano City Manager Finley deGraffenried. “At this point we’re just happy that our services are restored.”
According to deGraffenried, the power outage passed without major incident for the city. Generators were used to maintain water and wastewater services and a coalition of Llano police, Llano volunteer fire fighters, and Llano County Sheriff’s deputies managed the town’s larger intersections and checked low water crossings until electricity was restored.
“We are thankful for this LCRA crew who were away from their families last night getting everything back up and running for us here in Llano,” reads a statement issued by the Llano Volunteer Fire Department on Wednesday.