Progress Energy plans Lillington area outage Tuesday night

Lillington, N.C. — Progress Energy will cut power to about 4,300 homes and businesses in Lillington, Mamers and Bunn Level on Tuesday night to make repairs to a substation.

Company spokesman Mike Hughes said the outage would begin about 11:30 p.m. and could last up to three hours.

Progress Energy employees doing a routine inspection found problems Tuesday morning with the equipment at the company’s electric substation serving the Lillington area. Hughes said the repairs are necessary to prevent damage to equipment and avoid a longer, larger power outage in the area.

The weather forecast calls for temperatures in the teens overnight, close to record lows for this date, WRAL meteorologist Mike Maze said.

“With it being so cold, we know this is a major inconvenience for our customers, and we’re doing all we can to complete repairs as quickly and safely as possible,” said Marty Clayton, Progress Energy’s community relations manager. “We’ve tried to time the repairs when our customers will be least affected.”

The company alerted customers who need power for medical needs so that they could make other arrangements, Hughes said.