FirstEnergy’s Ohio subsidiaries, Ohio Edison, The Illuminating Company and Toledo Edison, have completed inspections and conducted equipment maintenance to enhance service reliability for customers.
The work supports tree-trimming work and equipment and technology upgrades FirstEnergy has made to its electric grid in Ohio to help prevent power outages and reduce many interruptions to just a brief or momentary outage.
“Since 2020, FirstEnergy has invested more than $500 million in new automated equipment and technology across its Ohio service area to help keep power flowing to our customers in all types of weather conditions,” said Torrence Hinton, FirstEnergy's Ohio President.
Proactive equipment inspections include using thermovision cameras to capture infrared images of electrical equipment and help detect potential problems within substations and on power lines not observed during regular visual inspections. The infrared technology shows heat on a color scale, with brighter colors or hot spots indicating areas to be repaired.
The images identify equipment issues like loose connections, corrosion and load imbalances, and utility workers conduct repairs to prevent potential power outages in the future.
FirstEnergy utility personnel also inspect electrical equipment, like transformers, located along neighborhood power lines and within substations to ensure the infrastructure is ready to perform efficiently when demand for electricity increases during the summer, typically due to air conditioning use.
FirstEnergy's Ohio electric distribution companies are together investing about $52 million to trim trees along more than 8,000 miles of power lines in 2024. The program will help keep power flowing to customers by helping to prevent tree-related outages. The companies' programs remain on track for completion in the fall.
Helicopter patrols have also completed inspections of more than 7,200 miles of transmission lines owned by American Transmission Systems, a FirstEnergy subsidiary, across the company's Ohio footprint. While the inspections look for damaged wire, broken cross arms and other hardware problems not visible from the ground, any potential reliability issues are addressed instantly.
