A huge investment by Indiana Michigan Power is expected to increase their capacity to reduce both outages, and the time it takes to fix them.

Tuesday, I & M announced in a press release that it will enter the fourth phase of their six-part Powering Up South Bend project.

The electric operator will invest $170 million to modernize the service in South Bend. Part of the process involves retiring two substations and working on several new ones to replace them. The Drewry and Colfax substations are on the chopping block, to be replaced by newer transmission equipment that will be easier to get back online in the event of an outage.

I & M says they understand that there are always concerns when transmission line work is done, and they will give the public a chance to see where the new lines would go during an Open House event at the Century Center at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 23.