Georgia Power will have a scheduled power outage today that will affect the northern half of Guyton, company representatives said.

The planned outage is necessary as the utility makes improvements in the reliability of electrical service.

“We’re upgrading that transmission line to improve the reliability and to meet the increased demand in that area,” Georgia Power spokesman Jeff Wilson said.

The circuit will be upgraded and Georgia Power has to change out the transformer. A substation will be taken out of service from 3:30-7:30 p.m. today in order to make the changes.

The outage will affect Guyton residents and businesses north of Highway 119 up to Egypt. It will impact about 1,200 customers.

Georgia Power officials have made door-to-door stops at businesses and churches and also have informed Guyton City Council, Guyton Police, the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office and county commissioners staff about the outage.

Automated messages also have been sent to all the customers expected to be affected by the outage.

“We always coordinate when we have a planned outage like this,” Wilson said.

Should inclement weather make a postponement necessary, the outage will take place Thursday at the same time. Since the forecast calls for sunny weather today, Wilson said, a rain date for the outage likely won’t be needed.