New Chelan PUD System Lets People Know Of Planned Outages

The Chelan County Public Utilities District (PUD) is rolling out a new notification system that will prepare customers for planned outages.

When crews plan to work in neighborhoods that require a shutdown in power, a phone recording will go out to affected customers.

"(We'll) send it out to the entire neighborhood at around the same time. It'll tell you everything you need to know about the outage. We'll call the phone number that is in the customers file," PUD spokesperson Rachel Hansen said. "In the past, we used to call all of them one by one. Staff would be on the phone talking to hundreds of people.

The PUD is letting their customers know of the new recording system now because crews in milder weather tend to work on more projects that require outages.