8-hour power outage moved to Monday for part of Grande Prairie

ATCO Electric has rescheduled a planned power outage in Grande Prairie.

It will begin Monday at 8 a.m. and last until 4 p.m.

The outage was originally scheduled for Sunday but was postponed due to high temperatures and Sunday’s heat warning.

The impacted areas are 68 Avenue to 84 Avenue and 100 Street to Resources Road.

ATCO said not all customers in the outage area will be affected but those who will have been notified.

ATCO Electric tweeted about the planned outage on Saturday afternoon, saying crews will be working on “necessary system upgrades.”

District manager Toni Petteplace said the outage has been planned for quite some time and about 750 customers will be affected.

She said the planned maintenance is done to avoid future outages and to increase reliability. The outage isn’t expected to last later than 5 p.m., Petteplace said.

“We do regular inspections of our systems and we do them on a regular basis. We try to limit the impact on customers as much as we can,” she said.

“We’ll work quickly and safely to restore power,” the company said. “We apologize for the inconvenience during the warm temperatures.”

Cooler temperatures were expected to move into northern Alberta on Monday, with the high expected to be 21C.

ATCO Electric serves nearly 227,000 customers in northern and east-central Alberta. Anyone who wants more information on the outage is asked to call ATCO at 1-800-668-5506.