June 11, 2021

FirstEnergy has once again earned recognition for its emergency response efforts from the Edison Electric Institute (EEI). The company received the Emergency Recovery Award for safely and efficiently restoring service to more than 371,000 customers following powerful winds that caused widespread damage throughout our service territory in November 2020.

“This award recognizes the efforts of our crews in the field who worked safely around the clock in difficult, and sometimes hazardous, conditions to help our customers,” said Sam Belcher, senior vice president of FirstEnergy and president of FirstEnergy Utilities.

Beginning early Sunday, Nov. 15, powerful winds between 45-55 mph and gusting up to more than 65 mph impacted Ohio and moved eastward across FirstEnergy’s service territory throughout the day. The storm brought down tree limbs and caused widespread damage to utility poles and equipment. The heavy winds led to thousands of instances of downed wires, more than 800 broken poles and crossarms, and damaged nearly 500 transformers due to trees and other debris contacting the company’s electrical equipment.

“Many EEI member companies experienced historic storms and other significant weather-related events in recent months that left customers without power,” said EEI President Tom Kuhn. “Crews worked around the clock and often in the most dangerous of conditions to assess damage and to restore power safely and as quickly as possible. They did all of this during a global pandemic.”

EEI presents awards twice annually to member companies to recognize extraordinary efforts to restore power or for assisting other electric companies after service disruptions caused by weather conditions and other natural events. FirstEnergy earned both the Emergency Recovery Award and the Emergency Assistance Award earlier this year for its restoration efforts following Tropical Storm Isaias and Hurricane Laura, respectively.