YORK COUNTY, Pa. — Met-Ed announced a planned hours-long outage for maintenance work that's expected to impact roughly 1,600 customers in York County this weekend.
The outage has been scheduled from 10 p.m. on Saturday, March 23 until Sunday, March 24 at 6 a.m. Med-Ed officials say the outage is to make repairs to switch to a substation.
Customers in York Haven and Manchester are expected to be impacted.
Med-Ed is stressing customers might experience an outage as they divert power to an alternative line, ultimately hoping to keep the electricity on. It all depends on whether it gets too cold overnight so that the line can support the extra customers for eight hours.
In an email to FOX43, Met-Ed said in part “The scope of this work goes beyond routine maintenance… if the switch on transmission equipment were to fail, it could potentially lead to a widespread outage of longer duration,"
According to Met-Ed, overnight weather conditions appear favorable to keep power flowing for customers.
FOX43 crews visited the areas expected to be impacted to try to speak with some customers.
The owner of Antonio’s Pizzeria in Goldsboro declined to speak on camera but told FOX43 she plans to buy a generator to keep the restaurant’s produce fresh in the event of losing power.
Met-ed says they’re taking the necessary steps to avoid that.
In the same email, Met-Ed responded in part, “The plan is for crews to reconfigure the local electric network to provide electricity to the 1,600 affected customers using an alternate feed while the work is being completed. Still, there is a potential that customers may have their electric service interrupted for all or part of the 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. window – which is why they were notified."
The Goldsboro Fire Company is reminding affected customers to keep their refrigerator doors closed, to check up on the elderly and to make sure cell phones are charged. The department also asks residents to be careful with candles and kerosene heaters.
Met-Ed also encourages customers to have a flashlight nearby in case they lose power. Click here for more safety tips.