It wasn’t a brownout for the rancho, just a cutout this afternoon that came back on in less than a minute. Took an hour more time for some people, maybe. Crashed the main computer, of course, in the midst of Mr. B. playing, as he said, "an important duel" in Wizard 101. So he was upset to tears.
This Austin Energy release is from July 18, so it doesn’t speak to what happened today. It doesn’t even say why the "small piece of equipment" at a nearby electrical substation caught on fire to cause 17,000 customers to lose power. But it’s not surprising, given the heat wave (now 23 days above a hundred degrees for July) and the whole town running a/c to the max, not to mention more of everything else electrical because it’s not very inviting to go outside. I suppose the brownouts will be here soon enough.
UPDATE: Mrs Charm says it seems to have half-busted the microwave. Again. Still cooks, but the fan doesn’t come on anymore. Durn thing is only little more than a year old. Fortunately we know better than to try and get it repaired.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
I am noticing more and more strange affinity between the weather at your place and here. I have two or three hours in the morning I can manage w/o AC… and I am fairly resistant to heat.
Mr. B., who enjoys Israeli culture courses in summer camp at the J, showed me on his globe how close Texas and Israel are in the subtropic 30-degree latitude. Israel is just a bit farther north of it than we are.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_deserts_form_around_30_degrees_latitude
Probably account for it.