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A planned outage if scheduled for electric customers in Boyd County, as well as parts of Holt and Knox counties, Sunday, Sept. 18, from 1 to 5 p.m., to prepare for upgrades at the substation that serves the area.

The outage will impact Nebraska Public Power District customers in the communities of Butte, Bristow and Lynch, as well as the village of Spencer and Niobrara Valley Electric Membership Corporation customers in rural Boyd County, northwestern Knox County and northern Holt County.

The planned outage is occuring so NPPD crew can begin making upgrades to the substation.

“Outages are not convenient for everyone but taking this planned outage will allow our crews to make needed upgrades to equipment at the substation and help ensure reliable service to the area for many years to come,” said NPPD account manager Brittney Koenig.

While the outage is taking place, crews from NPPD and Niobrara Valley will be completing some additional work on the distribution system in the area, that would otherwise require a planned outage to be completed.

“We never like when any of our customers have to experience an outage, so taking advantage of this planned outage to complete additional work will prevent us from needing to take additional outages in the future, noted Niobrara Valley Electric Membership Corporation general manager, Matt Fritz.

NPPD and Niobrara Valley Electric Membership Corporation began notifiying customers who will be impacted by the outage Sept. 12.

A second planned outage will be observed at a later date once the upgrades have been completed, to return the system to normal operation.

The second planned outage has not been scheduled, but customers will be notified once a time and date has been set. NPPD works closely with the impacted public power companies and communities to schedule any planned outages.