Consumers Energy: Overnight Lennon substation work to cut power to 1,350

UPDATE, Thursday, Aug. 27: Consumers Energy has postponed this overnight substation work for the Labor Day holiday, WILX and WNEM report — the planned outage described below is off for now. The Current will report the new date when the utility sets one.

Consumers Energy said it will upgrade its Venice substation, which serves customers in parts of Shiawassee County, Lennon City and Venice Township, according to a news release the utility issued Friday, Aug. 21.

The release said the overnight work will temporarily affect about 1,350 customers beginning at 11 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27, and lasting about eight hours, until approximately 7 a.m. Friday, Aug. 28.

The company listed two general areas that will be affected. The first runs from Lennon east along Lennon Road to Nichols Road, and south and east along McEnrue Road to I-69, and west to County Line Road. The second runs from Lennon west along Lennon Road to just east of S. Reed Road, south and east to I-69, and north and east along County Line Road back to Lennon.

"Consumers Energy continues to work to secure the grid by making necessary upgrades to our electrical system," said Steve Herrygers, executive director of high voltage distribution, in the release. "We appreciate the patience of our valued customers in Shiawassee County while our crews work to upgrade our substation to ensure families and businesses can count on us every hour of every day."

The utility said the upgrades will help reduce interruptions and improve reliability for customers in the community. It also said it often schedules work like this overnight, when many people are asleep, to minimize disruptions to businesses or other activities.

According to the release, postcards have been mailed to affected customers. The company said customers can sign up for outage alerts at ConsumersEnergy.com/alerts to receive updates on the scheduled outage and any changes to the planned work.

What happens next

Crews are scheduled to begin the substation work at 11 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27, with service expected to be restored by about 7 a.m. Friday, Aug. 28. Consumers Energy said customers signed up for alerts will be notified of any changes to the plan.