LINNVILLE — Residents of southern Lawrence County served by Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative (BREC) are asked to reduce their use of electricity on Saturday morning, April 29.

American Electric Power and BREC will perform work on transmission and distribution equipment at that time in preparation for energizing the new Scottown Substation.

“Our appeal is for folks in the area to turn off lights, air conditioning, and reduce use of electricity from 6 a.m. until around noon,” BREC spokesman Steve Oden said.

Circuits in southern Lawrence County fed by BREC’s Windsor substation will be affected by the work, according to Oden.

“AEP is cutting in a new 138,000-volt transmission line to feed our station at Scottown. Transmission facilities in the area will have to be de-energized for the work to be completed,” he explained.

“Scottown circuits won’t be affected. Scottown is fed from Bradrick. The transmission work will require us to shut down Windsor, however.”

Oden said BREC engineers and operations personnel plan to back-feed the Windsor circuits to maintain electric service in the area. But high demand could cause problems with service.

“The alternative is to have a six-hour power outage on a Saturday morning. We know our co-op members don’t want this, and neither do we. What we are asking for is their cooperation during this period to reduce electric demand. Power will remain on, temporarily fed from another source. When the work is done, we will switch things back to normal.”

Examples of energy conservation are to shut off air conditioning, avoid turning on ovens and stoves, turn off swimming pool pumps, lower the thermostat on electric water heaters, and not operate high-wattage devices like hair dryers or curling irons.

“We hope it will be a nice day. Folks might decide to go shopping, spend time at the ballpark, or take a weekend trip. Reduction of electric use might not be painful at all, and it will help us get ready to bring the new Scottown Substation on line,” Oden said.

“Lawrence County power reliability will be greatly enhanced by the new substation. It’s been a long time in the planning and construction phases, but Scottown will be on line soon.”

The new station at Scottown will be operational in June.

Areas in southern Lawrence County affected by the April 29 power conservation advisory include Aid, Linnville, Dobson, Greasy Ridge, State Route 243, Bent Creek, McKinney Creek, Steel Trap, Schaffer Town, Eaton, Bear Creek, Slate Run, State Route 775 (south and north), Indian Guyan, Wolf Trail, Cebee, Highland Park, Taylor Ridge, Reeves Creek, Mounts Branch, Wolf Creek, Pleasant Road, Pinkerman Road, Big Paddy, Athalia Road, Reece Hill, and Middle Paddy Road.

The work will be re-scheduled in the event of inclement weather.