January 11, 2022

Energizing the Future (EtF) – a multi-year initiative to upgrade FirstEnergy’s transmission facilities with advanced equipment and technologies – continued to reinforce the power grid throughout 2021.

Last year, more than 700 EtF projects supported our efforts to help reduce the frequency and duration of customer outages. “Since launching the initiative in 2014, our goal has been to improve transmission system reliability and resiliency across our service territory – and we have achieved significant improvements where we have completed projects,” said Ron Ferre, director, Transmission Project Management. “We intend to continue that trend with more work planned for 2022 and years beyond – from rehabilitating and enhancing existing transmission lines and substations to building and adding new facilities as needed to serve our customers.”

Here’s a look at some major accomplishments in Ohio, West Virginia and New Jersey.

Ohio

• Northern Portage County reliability improvement – Designed and built a new, five-mile-long 69-kilovolt (kV) transmission line from the Treat substation north of Aurora to the Cantex substation southeast of town. This work resolves potential transmission reliability issues in that area.
• Magellan Substation customer connection – Constructed a new substation and added a half-mile loop to the Highland-GM Lordstown 138-kV line near Warren. This project strengthens reliable 138-kV service to a new large industrial customer served from the Magellan substation.
• Crissinger Substation expansion – Added two breakers to existing facilities and looped the Kirby-Robert 138-kV line into the Crissinger substation southwest of Marion. The project provides an additional-138-kV line to improve operational flexibility during system restoration and maintenance. Adding voltage support also reduces the potential for voltage collapse on the nearby 34.5-kV system.
• Bingham-Schaaf 69-kV line rebuild – Rebuilt approximately 13 miles of the Bingham-Schaaf 69-kV line, which increases reliability for customers served by electric cooperatives in the rural area southeast of Marion. See the May 27, 2021 article.

West Virginia

• Flint Run Substation construction – Built a new 500/138-kV substation on a remote ridgetop northwest of Clarksburg. It is fed through a half-mile loop line from the Belmont-Harrison 500-kV line. There are two 138-kV feeds to the Waldo Run Substation, approximately 3.7 miles to the south. Completed in December, this project helps serve load increases brought about by the expanding local natural gas industry. See the Sept. 8, 2021, article.

New Jersey

• Pequest River Substation and line construction – This project will reconfigure a three-terminal 115-kV line (Gilbert-Pequest-Flanders) into a pair of two-terminal lines (Gilbert-Pequest and Pequest-Flanders) by constructing 1.3 miles of new 115-kV line looped into the Pequest River substation and expanding the substation’s breaker configuration. Much of the substation work is complete and new line construction will be finished this spring. Modifying the station reduces the potential local load loss during certain conditions and ensures power is supplied more reliably.

Work at Pequest River Substation in New Jersey includes expanding the substation’s existing breaker facilities.