Penn Power Plans Blackout During Steelers Game

Pittsburgh Steelers fans in the Zelienople area will be blacked out during Sunday’s game — not on television, but literally. Penn Power is planning a power blackout on Sunday for approximately 4,000 electric customers in the Zelienople area.

Penn Power, a part of First Energy, is upgrading the power grid in the area to include a backup power source. The plan is to make the area less-prone to power outages in the future. This is the second of two planned blackouts.

“What we are wanting to do is to add a backup power source and a backup power feed to that area,” Will Boye, First Energy communications rep, said to KDKA. “Right now, those customers are served by one power feed, so if something were to happen to that line, there is no backup power feed for those customers.”

The blackout was scheduled for Sunday, since it’s a day that schools and many businesses are closed. But that means that Steelers fans expecting to turn on their televisions and see the Steelers play the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday at 1 p.m. will be disappointed.

Those local fans will join the legion of out-of-towns that won’t be able to watch Sunday’s game via traditional over-the-air television. The Steelers and Cardinals will have limited TV distribution via CBS, with only fans in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia and select other areas of the Mid-Atlantic coast able to see the game.

All NFL games are available through NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. That is, as long as you have electricity.