Essential Energy has planned a power outage for work to safely be completed on the electricity network that will affect some of the Parkes Shire's villages.
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The outages will impact Bogan Gate, Tottenham, Trundle and Tullamore areas this Sunday between 7am and 4pm.
"The catalyst for the planned power outage is work being undertaken by an authorised contractor engaged by a customer, however to minimise the number of outages affecting customers, Essential Energy crews will also undertake maintenance work on the electricity network at the same time," Essential Energy's northern community relations manager David Crough said.
While Essential Energy requires planned power outages to enable their crews to safely complete maintenance and upgrade work on the network, they are also required by third parties, such as authorised contractors upgrading or connecting new sites to the network for property owners, builders working on roofs near the network, and truck drivers transporting high loads under the network.
"During the planned power outage, Essential Energy crews will replace more than 20 power poles and other electricity network equipment including cross-arms, which have reached end of life," David said.
Affected homes and businesses have been notified of the power outage.
"Given the planned power outage will affect entire towns and villages, on this occasion we've been able to schedule the works for a Sunday to reduce the overall inconvenience of the outage on the wider community," David said.
"Additionally, a slightly longer outage has been scheduled to avoid having two Sunday outages relatively close together."
As part of their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Essential Energy has developed operational protocols to ensure employee, contractor and community safety during their works.
"We appreciate that planned power outages may cause inconvenience for some customers, but they are necessary at times to allow third parties, and Essential Energy, to safely complete work on the electricity network," David said.
The scheduled works are reliant on suitable weather conditions and may be postponed if the conditions are unfavourable or any unforeseen circumstances arise.