Members of Magnolia Electric Power Association living in theEast Lincoln community may experience short, planned outages onTuesday as MEPA shifts some of its distribution load to the newsubstation located in the community.

“The East Lincoln substation was energized on Monday morning andthe transformer needs 24 hours to heat up before putting actualload on the substation,” said Manager of Engineering and OperationsAaron Achord. “The members on these lines have been receiving theirpower from the Brookhaven and Jayess Substations. The power outagesshould be short, averaging 30 minutes, as the feed of the line isswitched to the new substation.”

The new substation will provide power to 2,021 members.

“This new substation was built to provide reliable service toour members as we have seen unprecedented residential growth sinceHurricane Katrina. A new substation will also reduce outage time byreducing the length of the lines necessary to serve the area,” hesaid.

Different areas of the community will be affected between 10a.m. and 3 p.m. as each feeder is switched. Highway 583 will be onearea with Mallalieu Road another; Bethel and East Lincoln Roadswill be a separate area, while Warren and Townsend Roads will beyet another area, said Achord.