Residents living in the Niverville and Landmark areas can anticipate some brief hydro outages this week.

Riley McDonald is Media Relations Assistant with Manitoba Hydro. He explains the outages are necessary because of some preventative maintenance they have planned on some poles.

According to McDonald, they see a lot of dirt and grime build up on their equipment at this time of year. Eventually, this can cause a short and lead to a pole top fire, which happens to be Manitoba Hydro's leading cause of outages in spring.

"By doing this work in Niverville and Landmark (this) week, we can ensure that it's less likely to happen," he explains.

McDonald says they do not have a more definitive schedule, other than to say the outages could happen anytime between Monday and Friday. Crews will be working small sections at a time, resulting in outages that are only about 15 to 30 minutes in length.

"They are working on live lines for this stuff," he says. "So they will need to be able to turn off the line for a short period of time, so they can fix everything and then re-energize it."

McDonald says Manitoba Hydro has seen a lot of pole fires throughout Manitoba in the last while and this should help prevent those from happening.

"There are certain areas that may be more prone to that or certain equipment that may be more prone to that," he says. "So where possible, we will get out there and do preventative maintenance prior to spring."

Manitoba Hydro appreciates the patience from customers.