Manitoba Hydro customers in the Grunthal area will be without power for up to seven hours on Sunday.

Spokesperson Bruce Owen says a planned outage will take place on September 30th, impacting 972 customers. It has been scheduled from 1 pm to 8 pm, though Owen says they are hoping it doesn't last that long.

Owen says there is increased demand for hydro in the Grunthal area and this outage is necessary in order to do some work on the substation there.

"In that time frame as well, because the station will be out, it will also allow other crews to do some repairs on some lines in the area and to remove some problem trees," notes Owen.

Owen says when scheduling outages they try to minimize the inconvenience as much as possible.

"For instance, no schools will be in session," he says. "Businesses, for the most part, will be closed or on restricted hours."

Owen notes it is important this work is done before winter.

"In the winter months of course, electric usage goes up," says Owen. "So we're trying to mitigate the increased load on the station, we're trying to deal with that prior to the cold setting in."

(Outage map courtesy Manitoba Hydro)