Fort Nelson will be without power on August 10 for a planned outage

Residents of Fort Nelson can expect to have the power turned off this Sunday, August 11, due to a planned outage from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m.

B.C. Hydro said Sunday’s outage will allow workers to safely access their electrical equipment, and was originally planned for June 15 but was rescheduled. The company said they schedule these shortfalls in advance and notify residents who will be affected.  

Residents who are registered with B.C. Hydro’s online MyHydro service should have received an automatic email or phone call two weeks before the date. Postcards are also sent to the addresses of those who will lose power. 

The outage is expected to impact the entire community, with B.C. Hydro estimating 3,393 residents will be without power as the vast majority of the city goes dark. 

To prepare for the planned outage, residents are asked to turn off major appliances and sensitive electronics.  They can also prepare by charging all their devices the night before, or early morning on the day of. 

During the outage, residents are advised to keep their fridge and freezer doors closed as much as possible to ensure the contents stay fresh and to leave their phones on, but set them on airplane mode, with a low brightness to preserve battery power.  

For the first hour after power returns, residents are asked to only plug in the necessities as the system re-stabilizes from its hours-long break. 

The organization said they will notify residents of any changes to their plan via email and an automatic phone message – they will not send mail regarding cancellations or alterations to the plan.