Pacific Power: Southern Bend outage early Friday

About 6,400 Pacific Power customers in southern Bend will have their electricity interrupted early Friday morning so crews can switch power supply after finalizing a safe substation upgrade .

The outage is scheduled to begin at 3 a.m., officials said Tuesday, and power will be restored by 5 a.m., although “service will be returned at the first opportunity.”

The area affected is from Powers Road in the north, the Deschutes River on the west, Baker Road on the south to China Hat Road and back to Highway 97. Although outside of the main area, the Mountain Sky subdivision will also be affected, the utility said.

Customers in the affected area have been notified individually about the outage.

Street lights will be out in the area, and Pacific Power reminds anyone traveling in the area that time of morning to take extra care.

“We want to thank our customers ahead of time for their patience,” said Angela Price, the company’s regional community manager. “Upgrading the substation equipment will improve reliability and should make for fewer and shorter outages in the future.”

If customers have questions about the planned outage, they can call Pacific Power at 1-888-221-7070 . Any outages during that time in other parts of the community should continue to be reported to Pacific Power at 1-877-508-5088 .