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FirstEnergy: $181M was spent in West Penn service area last year

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GREENSBURG – FirstEnergy Corp. said Thursday it invested $181 million in 2014 in the West Penn Power service area on reliability infrastructure projects and other work, including building new transmission lines, new substations and installing remote-control equipment to reduce the number and duration of power outages.

The company said more than $48 million of the total was spent on transmission-related projects owned by the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Company, a FirstEnergy transmission company.

“These projects help us enhance day-to-day service reliability for our customers along with maintaining our system’s capability to handle future load growth,” said David W. McDonald, president of West Penn Power.

Projects included:

• Trimming trees to help maintain proper clearances and protect against tree-related storm damage along nearly 4,500 miles of power lines at a cost of more than $25 million. The work also included the removal of nearly 7,000 ash trees killed or damaged by the emerald ash borer.

• Finishing various projects at a cost of more than $18 million to expand West Penn Power’s distribution system.

• Installing a new high-voltage transformer at a substation near Ryerson Station in Greene County.  The $2.1-million project supports the electricity demand of area coal mines.

• Repairing and replacing 450 wood utility poles at a cost of about $1.5 million. Crews inspected 57,600 of 491,000 wood poles throughout the service area.

• Upgrading 135 distribution circuits throughout the service territory at a cost of nearly $1 million to help enhance service reliability for 55,000 West Penn Power customers.  These enhancements included installing new wire, cable and fuses.

The company said planning also is continuing for additional projects that are expected to be completed in 2015, including new substations, transmission lines and circuit upgrades.

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