'I'll be quite stressed out' says Winnipeg man upset over planned power outage Tuesday

A Winnipeg man is frustrated that Manitoba Hydro planned an outage in his neighbourhood Tuesday, expected to last eight hours.

On Friday, Justin Pennell received a letter in his Garvie Bay mailbox from Hydro stating that an outage would take place from 9 a.m.until 4 p.m. Pennell says he's worried there's a chance that his pipes could burst because of the cold and he's wondering why the work needs to be done during the winter months.

"I will be quite stressed out that entire day," says Pennell.

While Pennell understands work needs to be completed, he feels it's inconvenient to put people out during the cold winter months. He's worried about a neighbour down the street who has a newborn baby.

"We can put on more layers of clothing and possibly go to the mall to warm up or go to a friend or family member's for the day," says Pennell. "She doesn't even have a vehicle to drive and she has to rely on public transit to keep warm for the day."

Hydro spokesman Anthony Coop said he couldn't speak to this specific case, but Hydro outages are sometimes needed to keep the power supply reliable. 

"We typically take outages to repair what is damaged or failing, or to connect new equipment like a new substation that's needed to meet growing electricity demands in [an] area. If we were to delay those outages it would increase the potential for an unexpected or unplanned outage which would likely be a lot longer — that's why we do it in winter," Coop said. 

"We do our best to schedule that work for times that are going to minimize the inconvenience for our customers and make them as short as possible."

General sense that's why we continue to do these outages and maintenance works year round. just really to ensure reliable supply of power to our customers.