Around 3,000 West Penn Power customers in Butler, Cooperstown and Valencia will be without power Saturday night and Sunday morning, according to a company spokesperson.

The outage from 11 p.m. Saturday until 8 a.m. Sunday was planned for electric crews to reconfigure the network after a switch failed Thursday, Feb. 27, at a substation along Route 8 south of Butler, according to spokesperson Todd Meyers. Under the current configuration, power could not be rerouted if a failure occurred.

Substation electricians and a crew of 11 linemen will work overnight to replace the switch, reconfigure the network in the substation and replace two wood poles near the substation, Meyers said.

“The thought is that when we had the crews and when we had the material, that’s when we want to do it instead of scheduling it for later,” Meyers said.

The overnight outage was also planned to minimally affect businesses. He said the number of customers affected would have been greater than 3,000 if maintenance had not been scheduled immediately. West Penn Power aims to notify affected customers of planned outages two weeks prior, Meyers said.

“It’s not ideal,” Meyers said. “Nobody wants to be without power, but the alternative could be breaking at a different time … It could be longer than eight hours potentially on a colder day.”

Meyers advised affected customers to wear extra layers, use extra blankets and stay in the interior rooms of the home. Affected customers who are sick or elderly are advised to stay elsewhere if possible, he said.

The National Weather Service projects temperatures in the lower 20s for Saturday night into Sunday morning.

Meyers said all affected customers were notified, and he encouraged customers affected who were not notified to verify their contact information is up to date in their FirstEnergy corporation account. Customers can sign up to receive a call or text notification of an outage, and Meyers recommended businesses sign up for texts.