AusNet Services has backtracked in a plan to cut the power to more than 300 Leneva homes on Tuesday, after customers complained they would no longer be able to work from home.
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Homes received a letter this week advising them that the electricity would be out from 8.30am until 5pm.
This would have made it hard for residents to work from home, in accordance with safety guidelines issued around dealing with coronavirus.
One of those residents was Lloyd Brown, who said AusNet had "dropped the ball" for its timing of its planned works.
"This is just extraordinary that they would see fit, in the biggest crisis in 100 years, to get this on," he said.
"The Prime Minister's saying work at home, then AusNet is going over the top of the Prime Minister and saying no you can't work at home, you have to go back to your offices because we're not providing you with power."
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His partner is a business owner with 40 staff over three offices, all trying to work from home rather than go into the office.
Without power, she would not have been not be able to adhere to that advice.
"She's told everyone to work from home as much as you can for safety reasons," Mr Brown said.
"She's going to have to go back into work and she's going to have to take a child in with her - the schools are closed."
He said he was perplexed by the decision, but they were "brushed off" when they tried to contact AusNet for an explanation.
But when The Border Mail contacted AusNet on Saturday, the company said the planned power outage had been cancelled, and residents would be notified.
Mr Brown said he had been concerned the power shutdown was connected to a nearby development in Leneva, but AusNet has said it was routine maintenance.
Its outage list states that 344 customers would have been affected.
AusNet stated it has prioritised work supplying energy to essential services such as hospitals and medical centres, factories manufacturing medical products such as face masks and hand sanitiser, and supermarkets.
In a video statement on social media, Ausnet operations executive general manager Prue Crawford-Flett said a commitment to reliable energy was essential, now more than ever.
"We're only going ahead with works that are absolutely necessary and all non-critical works are being cancelled," she said.
"If you're working from home, please plan ahead - charge your laptops and your mobile phones and download any documents you may need."
