Avista, KEC plan power outage Sunday

Some Avista and Kootenai Electric Cooperative customers on Lake Coeur d'Alene will experience two planned power outages Sunday between 4-5 a.m., and between 9-10 a.m.

About 667 Avista customers on the east side of Lake Coeur d'Alene from Carlin Bay south to the city of Harrison will be affected by the outages.

About 595 KEC members on the southeast side of Lake Coeur d'Alene (including the Harrison, chain lakes and Medimont areas) will also be affected.

The two outages will allow Avista crews to work in a safe environment as maintenance and repairs are performed on transmission lines connected to the company's O'Gara substation. Some KEC members are also served from the substation and will be affected by Avista's work. Affected KEC members will be notified by phone as will Avista customers.

"We apologize for the inconvenience to our customers, as well as those of Kootenai Electric," said Anna Scarlett, Avista's St. Maries district manager. "We'll work as quickly and safely as possible so that all customers will have their service restored with minimum inconvenience,"

As part of the same project, about 4,500 Avista customers in St. Maries will also experience a power outage on Sunday lasting from 4 to 10 a.m.

In order to increase service reliability, crews will be working on multiple projects affecting the substation, transmission and distribution systems that serve customers in St. Maries.