FirstEnergy to Spend $371M in Ohio Edison Footprint

AKRON, Ohio — FirstEnergy Corp. will rebuild a 15-mile, 69-kilovolt transmission line that connects substations in Garrettsville and Newton Falls, the utility announced today.

The $23 million project represents a portion of the $371 million FirstEnergy expects to spend on distribution and transmission infrastructure projects this year to enhance reliability for customers in its Ohio Edison service territory.

The upgrade, aimed at improving service for Portage and Trumbull counties, is scheduled to go online this year.

Major projects scheduled in 2017 throughout Ohio Edison’s 34-county area include building new substations and transmission lines, installing equipment in substations, adding remote control equipment on circuits, and inspecting and replacing utility poles.

“The proactive upgrades we have done over the years to our electric system have helped reduce the number and duration of service disruptions our customers experienced,” said Randall Frame, regional president of Ohio Edison. “Our results show that in 2016 we performed better than the reliability standards established by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, with an average Ohio Edison customer experiencing less than one outage per year.”

In 2016, FirstEnergy spent $375 million in the Ohio Edison area on hundreds of large and small transmission and distribution projects, including building new substations and transmission lines, adding equipment, installing voltage-regulating equipment and automated controls, and replacing poles.

Other FirstEnergy projects scheduled in the Ohio Edison footprint this year:

• Adding several circuit breakers and automated disconnect switches to substations in Akron, Edison, Mansfield, Massillon, Ontario and Uniontown at a combined cost of more than $24.5 million to enhance reliability by providing alternate paths for the electricity to flow should interruptions be detected.
• Starting construction on a new $9 million, 28-mile, 138-kV transmission line in the Sandusky and Fremont areas. Twelve miles of the project are in Ohio Edison territory and the remainder is in the Toledo Edison footprint.
• Completing a 12 mile, 69-kV transmission line project that will enhance service reliability to about 7,500 customers in Huron County. The work includes the installation of nine miles of new circuit and rebuilding three miles of circuit between substations in Norwalk and North Fairfield.
• Rebuilding a 138-kV transmission line from a substation in Twinsburg to one in Hudson that provides electricity to the city’s municipal electric system. The cost of the project is about $6.6 million.
• Investing more than $4 million inspecting and replacing distribution poles in Ohio Edison’s service area.
• Rebuilding a 69-kV transmission line in the Ashland area at a cost of $3.3 million.
• Replacing a transformer and other equipment at a substation in Marion at a cost of $1.8 million to enhance redundancy and reliability.
• Building a new modular substation in West Jefferson in Madison County at a projected cost of $1.3 million.
• Using a barge to replace a 12.5-kV underwater cable running from Middle Bass Island to North Bass Island at a cost of $1.4 million.
• Installing remote-control equipment and completing other enhancements on more than 270 circuit locations throughout the Ohio Edison area at an estimated cost of $1.3 million.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.