LAKE PLACID — National Grid will go forward with a planned power outage for this village’s electric customers early Friday morning, and it will be extended to customers in Saranac Lake and Ray Brook.

National Grid spokeswoman Virginia Limmiatis said that approximately 5,000 total customers will be affected by the expanded outage, which is scheduled to start at 5:30 a.m. Friday.

It’s being done to remove three unoccupied osprey nests from the electric line that brings power to this part of the Tri-Lakes area.

Limmiatis added that the utility company still plans to complete the work and return electric service to all customers by 7:30 a.m. She also said National Grid will notify its affected customers through automated telephone calls beginning Wednesday.

The expansion to Saranac Lake and Ray Brook is a departure from National Grid’s initial plan to limit the outage to Lake Placid customers by re-feeding Saranac Lake’s power supply to keep electricity on for that time period. Limmiatis said Saranac Lake and Ray Brook will also be off-line during the work as a safety precaution.

“As we looked through the technical specifications of this,” Limmiatis said, “we didn’t want any voltage levels to change for those customers in the process of switching to different feeders. The best course of action is to take them off-line as part of broader outage.”

The nests are located in remote locations between Malone and Saranac Lake, National Grid’s North Country manager of community and customer, Rich Burns, said Friday. The line travels through a former railroad line between Malone and Paul Smiths.

National Grid has received approval from the state Department of Environmental Conservation to relocate the nests because the nests are currently unoccupied, Burns added. Platforms will be built nearby, out of the danger zone of the power line, and the nests will be moved onto them.

“I believe the problem is, if the nests were left there, rather than the line tripping out, it could burn the structure down,” Burns said Friday, “which could cause an extended outage.”

Limmiatis said National Grid will conduct the work during this early morning after sunrise to reduce impact on electrical customers.

Burns and new Lake Placid Electric Superintendent Kimball Daby said on Friday it’s believed these nests have existed in these locations for some time and were only discovered thanks to National Grid’s increased aerial patrols and inspections of the line in recent months, after two outages left Lake Placid without power for long stretches of time in February and June.

Burns added that National Grid doesn’t think there are any more nests located within the danger zone of the power line.

“We patrolled the whole line, and this is the sum of what we found,” Burns said. “Of course, wildlife will continue to do what it does.”

A month ago, Burns was on hand with local officials and state representatives, including state Sen. Betty Little (R-Queensbury) and Essex County Assemblyman Dan Stec (R-Queensbury), when a group met at the North Elba Town Hall to draft a plan to prevent future outages. Burns also said late last month that trimming the line for “danger trees” has been going on since June.