Mon Power planning system improvements

Mon Power, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., is planning to spend millions this year to further enhance the electrical system and reliability in its 34-county service area

“This year alone we are spending $60 million dollars and that’s something we do year in and year out,” said President of West Virginia operations for First Energy Holly Kaufman.

The money will be used in major projects, primarily in north-central West Virginia, that include transmission improvements, building new distribution circuits, replacing underground cables and inspecting and replacing utility poles.

Planned projects include spending nearly $7 million in a variety of transmission expansions and enhancements intended to increase the capacity and robustness of Mon Power’s high voltage transmission system.

“It’s actually adding capacity as well as improving reliability and we’re always looking ahead at what’s going on with our customers, what kind of growth there is out there and trying to get ahead of that and make sure we have enough capacity coming into the area to provide the electricity needs for right now as well as into the future so the growth can continue,” said Kaufman.

Individual projects include spending more than $1.1 million to replace electrical equipment identified during routine inspections of the transmission system, upgrading equipment on distribution circuits throughout the service territory and expanding the distribution system with an investment of more than $11 million to provide electrical service to new residential and commercial customers in north central
West Virginia.

In addition, the company plans to continue it’s ongoing vegetation management program to trim trees and maintain proper clearances to help reduce tree-related storm damage.

“We’re spending $34 million in trimming trees this year and that’s something that we do on a regular basis,” said Kaufman. “It certainly helps us minimize the damage during a storm.”

Mon Power was criticize following the derecho and Superstorm Sandy for the numerous amount of lines that were taken out by falling trees and limbs hanging into right-of-ways.

The company will also spend more than $3 million inspecting and replacing distribution poles in the
Mon Power service area. The inspection process is conducted on a 12-year cycle in West Virginia. 

The improvements are expected to provide both localized and widespread benefits for customers.

Mon Power serves about 385,000 customers throughout the state.