FirstEnergy’s subsidiary American Transmission Systems (ATSI) has upgraded eight miles of two 138 kV high-voltage power lines in Lake and Geauga counties in Ohio with new wires to support the regional transmission system and enhance service reliability for 7,000 customers of The Illuminating Company.
The new wire installation project worth $7 million will not only minimize overload risks but also help the lines carry increased power flow in an unplanned service interruption event on other transmission lines. ATSI adopted aerial method to perform the major upgrades and installed new components and insulators to support the wires along the route.
While the upgraded segment serves the Pawnee Substation, a second phase of the project extending an additional eight miles to the Mayfield Substation in Chester Township, Geauga County, is planned for 2024. ATSI will be upgrading two transmission lines on parallel structures in the corridor running 16 miles from the Leroy Center Substation to the Mayfield Substation in the autumn of 2023.
Sharing 63 transmission towers, the two power lines operate from the Leroy Center Substation in Leroy Township through Concord Township in Lake County and Hambden and Chardon townships in Geauga County. The project, which is a part of FirstEnergy's Energizing the Future initiative, was identified in conjunction with PJM under its reliability planning analysis.
