Power outage planned Sunday for Firelands Electric Cooperative members

NEW LONDON — Firelands Electric Cooperative has received notice from its transmission provider that the lines delivering electric power to Firelands Electric's New London substation will be taken out of service for an emergency planned transmission outage that is scheduled to begin about 9 a.m. on Sunday. The transmission provider will be making critical equipment repairs, and estimates the work will take about 8 hours. This transmission line feeds Firelands Electric's distribution system that delivers power to more than 1,850 cooperative members in and around the New London area. Based on weather, temperatures, and our load, the cooperative will be able to backfeed power to a small portion of the affected area to minimize the number of outages. Several businesses that will receive backfeed power include: Gas Depot, Mickey Mart, McDonald's, Miller's SuperValu, Pizza House, Mr. Pizza Head, and The Laurels of New London. Firelands Electric's member-consumers affected will receive notification via phone and/or email regarding if their specific location will be included in the outage or backfeed process. A majority of the members receiving their power from the cooperative's New London substation will be affected by this emergency planned transmission outage. The transmission provider is bringing in multiple crews to complete this work as quickly as possible, which includes replacement of a critical pole and other equipment. Firelands Electric will make every effort to communicate updates during the outage on our cooperative's website, www.firelandsec.com, Facebook page and Twitter feed. Please make sure cell phones, tablets, and other electronic devices are fully charged prior to the outage in order to access the latest information. The cooperative encourages members with sensitive electronic equipment and computers to shut off their devices prior to the scheduled outage, and have some type of surge protection or battery backup in place. We urge members with medical issues to make arrangements for backup power during this project. Members impacted are encouraged to visit our website or FoodSafety.gov regarding refrigerated food and power outages at www.foodsafety.gov/food- safety-charts.