FirstEnergy ‘15 spending included several Washington Co. projects
FirstEnergy Corp. said Monday it invested $171 million in 2015 in its West Penn Power 24-county service area, which included numerous enhancements in Washington County.
The projects included building new transmission lines, new substations and installing remote-control equipment to help reduce the number and duration of power outages.
“Each year we undertake transmission and distribution projects that will help us enhance day-to-day service reliability for our customers,” said David W. McDonald, president of West Penn Power. “The infrastructure work also helps prepare our system for future growth, including demand from western Pennsylvania’s growing Marcellus shale gas industry.”
Some of the key FirstEnergy projects in Washington County during last year included:
• Adding new equipment to increase and maintain voltage levels at an existing transmission substation near Houston. The $1 million substation upgrades support operations at an adjacent MarkWest Energy midstream gas processing plant in Chariters Township.
• Completing a new 1.7 -mile transmission line in Washington County to provide electricity to a new natural gas compressor station in Robinson Township at a cost of about $3 million.
• Completing a new 2-mile distribution line in the Manifold Road area of Washington and replacing a large substation power transformer to support increased residential and commercial growth at a cost of nearly $1.7 million.
• Building a new 1.3-mile distribution line in the Southpointe area to support increased residential and commercial growth at a cost of nearly $700,000.
st of more than $150,000.
The company said it also repaired and replaced 331 wood utility poles across its 24-county service area at a cost of about $1.6 million. Crews inspected about 60,000 of 491,000 wood utility poles throughout the service area.
It also upgraded 158 distribution circuits throughout the service territory at a cost of $1.1 million to help enhance service reliability for more than 140,000 West Penn Power customers. The enhancements included installing cross arms, new wire, cable and fuses.
About $41 million of the total $171 million total was spent on transmission-related projects owned by the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Company (TrAILCo), a FirstEnergy transmission company.