Ohio Energy Spending $369M to Upgrade System
AKRON, Ohio — Ohio Edison is spending $369 million this year on distribution and transmission infrastructure projects in its 34-county service territory, parent company First Energy Corp. announced today.
To date, more than $195 million of the total has been spent on installing equipment in existing substations, constructing new substations, installing remote control equipment on circuits, and the inspection and replacement of utility poles.
“By doing proactive upgrades, we enhance the reliability and resiliency of our system, further minimizing the duration and frequency of service interruptions,” said Randall Frame, regional president of Ohio Edison, in a prepared statement.
Among the projects is construction of a new modular substation in the Lisbon area at a cost of $2.5 million.
Other projects to be completed this year in the Ohio Edison footprint include:
- Construction on a new transmission substation in the Elyria area to help enhance system reliability. The project is budgeted at approximately $27 million and is scheduled to go online by the end of the year.
- Spending $20 million to expand a substation and rebuild several transmission lines in the Mansfield area.
- Constructing a new 69-kilovolt (kV) transmission line in the Norwalk area at an estimated cost of $11 million.
- Adding new equipment at substations in Kent, Norton, and Brunswick at a cost of about $7.5 million to enhance redundancy and reliability.
- Investing more than $6 million inspecting and replacing distribution poles. This inspection process is conducted on a 10-year cycle. More than 58,000 utility poles are scheduled to be inspected in 2016.
- Rebuilding a 138-kV transmission line in Lorain at a projected cost of $5.1 million.
- Reconductoring a 138-kV transmission line from Canton to Alliance at a cost of about $10 million.
- Installing remote-control equipment and circuit breaker upgrades at various substations throughout the Ohio Edison area at an estimated cost of $3 million.
- Replacing a transformer at a substation in Akron at a cost of $1.3 million.
- Replacing a transformer at a substation in Delaware at a cost of $1.6 million.
Ohio Edison serves more than 1 million customers across 34 Ohio counties.
SOURCE: First Energy Corp.
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