Chugach Electric says its upper Kenai Peninsula customers will face a series of brief power outages next week, as the utility conducts scheduled maintenance work near Hope.
In a Tuesday statement, Chugach says the outages, expected to affect Hope as well as the Sunrise and Summit Lake areas, involve the replacement of powerline poles in preparation for the job.
"The outages are necessary to allow temporary, taller structures to be installed adjacent to the Hope Substation to permit a rebuild of that facility later this year," officials wrote. "In order to safely install the new poles, a section of the transmission line needs to de-energized and be taken out of service for several days."
During the first series of planned outages Monday, Hope is expected to lose power from 11 a.m. to noon, while the Sunrise area will see a one-hour outage from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and Summit Lake will be down from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Chugach says generators in Hope and Sunrise will provide power during the work on the poles, with Kenai Peninsula plants feeding power north to Summit Lake and plants to the north serving Portage and Whittier.
A second set of outages as crews re-energize the transmission line, scheduled for the following Friday, will involve Summit Lake losing power from 10 a.m. to noon, with Sunrise off the grid from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and Hope losing power from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
"There is a chance the (Friday) outages could happen at the same times a day earlier, depending upon how quickly crews can build the temporary structures at the Hope Substation," officials wrote.
Anyone with questions about the outages can call Chugach's member services department at 907-563-7366.
Editor's note: The attribution of Chugach's statement has been updated after consulting with Chugach officials.
Contact Chris Klint