Aurora plans to replace seven power poles in Clyde as part of its programme to upgrade its network.
It is planned for 9am-4pm and is expected to affect 630 customers.
Melanie Eade, who runs Eade Gallery, said Clyde businesses, of which there were about 30, were ''very upset''.
''In the winter the weekend is where we make all our money. People from Queenstown and Wanaka come over to play sports and that kind of thing. The town will practically shut down.''
She understood it was timed for a weekend so Clyde Primary School had no outages during school time, but said a generator could have been used.
Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan represented the businesses and tried to get Aurora to change the date, but failed, she said.
Mr Cadogan was on holiday yesterday and could not be reached for comment.
Olivers owner David Ritchie said it was ''incredibly inappropriate'' for the work to be done on a weekend.
The restaurant and accommodation operation was investigating power generation alternatives for that day, but most small businesses would have to close, he said.
Dunstan Hotel manager Robyn Gallagher said she was concerned the power outage could last longer than planned and run into an All Blacks-Lions test match.
A controlled outage in the town on May 11 was scheduled for 9am until 1pm, but lasted until closer to 5pm.
She understood it was crucial the maintenance occurred, but was concerned about the timing.
At a Vincent Community Board meeting this week, member Russell Garbutt wanted the board to pass a resolution noting its concern with the scheduled power cut due to its potential loss of income to businesses.
The board was supportive. However, the rules of community boards meant a resolution could not be made without first going through Central Otago District Council staff, he said.
Aurora Energy chief executive Grady Cameron said it tried to accommodate the needs of business owners by deferring the work by a month to avoid the tourist shoulder season, but doing it before school holidays in July.
''We regret that in this instance consensus could not be reached about when would cause least disruption.''
Aurora investigated generation options for Clyde Primary School to enable the outage to be deferred until the following Monday [July 3], but the 80kVA generator available did not have a big enough capacity to supply the school, he said.
''This will be the last widespread outage planned for the Clyde township.''
The previous planned outage in Clyde went over the estimated completion time due to ''very difficult'' ground conditions at one site slowing the pace of work, he said.
''Currently Aurora Energy is replacing on average 70 poles per week across its network in Central Otago, Queenstown Lakes and Dunedin, and unfortunately that does mean unavoidable disruption for parts of the community.''
