OCA Audit Reports

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Issued: August 2005

SUMMARY

This report is part of our ongoing Austin Energy Audit Initiative whereby we analyze various aspects of AE’s operations.

The purpose of this project was to verify that AE has adequate policies in place to guide decisions on when to bury power lines, and that they are complying with the policies. Also, in recognition of the significance of the changes to the design standards for commercial and retail development recently proposed by Council, we attempted to determine what risks AE faces related to moving lines underground in the Core Transit Corridors (CTC).

We found that AE’s design standards are adequate and AE has been following them. However, the standards do not require city-wide underground line conversions, meaning AE faces significant challenges related to the CTC projects. Challenges include planning and funding the projects, as well as obtaining rights-of-way along the CTC routes and finding a way to convince other utilities to also move their lines underground.

Download the entire text of our Electric Line Construction audit report (Size: 128 KB) in Adobe Acrobat. You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view these files. Or request a hard copy of this audit report, No. AU05701, by submitting this audit report request form.

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