The Bulkley Valley will go dark this weekend for several hours on Sunday.
BC Hydro has planned an outage that will affect Telkwa, Smithers, the Hazeltons and all points in between for Aug. 22 to replace equipment.
The outage is scheduled for between 5 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Hydro said in a release the work is necessary because of the 2017 high river event that compromised one of its high voltage towers. The plan is to ultimately replace the Telkwa River transmission crossing, but the current outage is to allow workers to safely move the flow of power to a temporary bypass line.
A second outage will be planned for October to transition back to a new permanent configuration.
On Sunday, crews will be working around Birch and Cottonwood Streets in Telkwa and traffic will be restricted on the river from the CN Rail bridge to Jay Road.
Hydro advises residents of the affected communities to protect electrical devices by unplugging them and to turn off lights, heaters and major appliances.
The utility also noted the outage could be cancelled due to weather or a hydro-related emergency making crews unavailable.
