Nearly every Island home will face one day without power before the end of the year as Belco readies the grid for winter.

On Monday, the Bermuda Electric Light Company will launch an extensive rehabilitation programme to strengthen the electricity distribution system weakened by the onslaught of Hurricane Fabian.

Starting in Somerset, workers will shut down power to various sections of the grid to solidify temporary repairs made in the post-Fabian blitz to get power back to residents.

As well as the scheduled outages, Belco warned there could also be emergency shutdowns without notice during the repair period.

At least $2 million in damage was caused to the system by the effects of the hurricane, with that figure expected to rise as further checks take place.

"Firstly, we would like to thank the community for the support and praise we have received during the restoration of the system since Hurricane Fabian," company CEO Garry Madeiros said at a Press conference yesterday.

"We are going to launch a comprehensive rehabilitation and restoration programme. We have done a lot of temporary work and with the winter looming, we have to try and ensure our system is as solid as it can be.

"Unfortunately, we are going to have to cause some inconvenience to our community. For the next two-and-a-half months we will be out in force trying to make sure our system is stronger.

"There will be outages on a daily basis. Hopefully, our customers will be as understanding during this phase as they were during Fabian."

In the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, Belco staff worked round the clock to restore power with nearly every home on the Island having power turned back on within three weeks.

But Mr. Madeiros admitted that a lot of the repairs were temporary and with the threat of more strong winds through the winter, more work was needed on the system.

He said that work would include repairing or replacing poles as well as clearing debris left by workers as they blitzed across the Island last month.

He added that normally they would write to customers to notify them of outages but due to the scale of the operation, the scheduled interruptions will be advertised in the classified section of The Royal Gazette with details normally being given covering three days at a time.

"We are attempting to complete all of the rehabilitation work before the winter storm season," he said.