Despite a National Weather Forecast predicting temperatures would drop as low as 13 degrees, Dayton Power & Light said Thursday afternoon that it was moving ahead with plans to turn off power early Friday morning to customers in several Highland County communities.
Those communities included Leesburg, Highland, Hillsboro, Lynchburg and nearby New Vienna.
A spokesperson for DP&L said the outage, planned to run from midnight to 4 a.m., was a routine procedure “to optimize electric service for all our customers.”
The outage was originally scheduled for the same time frame on Tuesday, Dec, 26, or basically Christmas night, but DP&L posted a message on its Facebook page before the planned outage that said: “The safety of our customers and our crews is always our top priority. The forecast has changed since this planned outage in the New Vienna/Leesburg (area) was scheduled last week. Due to low temperatures in tonight’s forecast, we will postpone this maintenance until Thursday night. The outage will begin at midnight, lasting until 4 a.m. Friday. Impacted customers are receiving an outbound call with more details.”
The low temperature during the originally scheduled outage only reached 17 degrees in Highland County, according to the National Weather Service.
The spokesperson said all customers in the impacted areas should have received an “outgoing call” informing them of the original planned outage last Friday, and then should have received an updated call this week announcing the change in the outage date – as long as the customers had provided updated contact to information to DP&L.
It is the responsibility of the customer, the spokesperson said, to keep DP&L informed of updated phone numbers.
The reason for scheduling the outage from midnight to 4 a.m., the spokesperson said, is because that’s when “it would be the least disruptive as possible” for both residential and commercial customers.
The spokesperson said DP&L was “certain” power would be restored by 4 a.m. Friday in the impacted areas.
For updates, the spokesperson said customers can visit DP&L’s Facebook page or Twitter account.
Reach Jeff Gilliland at 937-402-2522 or [email protected].
