OCEAN PINES -- Choptank Electric Cooperative officials this week announced a planned power outage that will affect thousands of Ocean Pines residents for several hours early in the morning on April 17 in order to perform maintenance on a breaker in the area.

The outage will start around 12:01 a.m. and should conclude around 5 a.m. on April 17. Over 9,000 co-op members in Ocean Pines will be affected and no back-feeding of service will be performed during the prescribed time. The outage is being conducted in order for Choptank Electric to perform necessary maintenance on its St. Martin’s breaker station, which will affect the Ocean Pines substation.

A rain date has been planned for the following day, April 18, beginning at 12:01 a.m. Choptank Electric officials said this week they will make several attempts to notify its Ocean Pines members about the planned outage prior to the date.