BC Hydro has a planned power outage affecting more than 7,000 households on the north side of Chilliwack scheduled from midnight to 6 a.m. on June 10.
Crews will be performing work on the electrical system “to maintain its safe and efficient operation,” according to the BC Hydro info page on planned outages.
Before a planned outage is set to start they recommend that customers turn off their lights, electric heaters and major appliances to protect them.
“For the first hour after the power comes back on, only plug in or turn on those electronics and appliances that you really need. This gives the system time to stabilize and prevents it from getting overloaded.”
Some of the maintenance work can only be completed with power lines “de-energized,” so in order to ensure the safety of both work crews and the public, a power outage is required, the utility explained online.
“By planning the outage and doing the necessary work, our crews can prevent a potential unplanned emergency outage in the future, where a part of the system unexpectedly fails or malfunctions.”
However some work can’t be done when it is raining, other work can be done under any weather conditions. This is why outages can be sometimes cancelled at the last minute.
“When we’re notified of a reschedule or cancellation prior to the start time we’ll send an auto-dialer (phone message), email and cancel the outage in our outage list.”
To see the list of streets/areas affected for planned outage of Friday, June 10, go to the planned outage list for Chilliwack, or call 1-800-BCHYRDO
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