65- 407 C.M.R. ch. 660, § 14
The term "interruption" in this subsection means either a cessation of service or a substantial degradation in the quality of service normally provided. A utility may temporarily interrupt service when it is necessary to repair or maintain the utility delivery system (planned or unplanned); to eliminate an imminent threat to life, health, safety or substantial property damage; or for reasons of local, state or national emergency.
When the utility schedules a service interruption for maintenance or repairs, the utility must give reasonable notice of the cause and expected duration of the interruption to customers and occupants who may be affected. If the service interruption is scheduled to affect more than 10 customers or a single commercial customer on a dedicated line, or last more than 5 hours, reasonable notice means 3 days if feasible, but 24 hours at a minimum. In other cases reasonable notice means notice as soon as practicable.
When service is interrupted without notice for more than 5 hours, the utility must make reasonable efforts to notify affected customers and occupants of the cause and expected duration of the interruption as soon as possible. A utility may give priority to restoration of service when it is impossible to both restore service and notify customers at the same time.
Notice required by paragraphs A and B can be given by the method best suited to the nature of the interruption, the size of the area affected, the time of year, and the resources available to the utility. Notice includes, but is not limited to, personal visits to affected premises, an advertisement in local papers where the interruption will or is taking place, posting outage information on a website, or making outage information available to customers that call the utility.
65- 407 C.M.R. ch. 660, § 14