FirstEnergy Corp. has announced that its Energizing the Future investment initiative is driving significant performance improvement in the company's electric transmission system. The program is aimed at modernizing the "electric superhighway" of the power grid, which carries energy across FirstEnergy's territory, often over long distances.
Since launching Energizing the Future in 2014, FirstEnergy has achieved a 37 percent reduction in equipment-related outages in its American Transmission Systems, Inc. (ATSI) zone, which includes high-voltage lines and substations serving the company's Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating and Toledo Edison utilities in Ohio, as well as Penn Power customers in western Pennsylvania.
FirstEnergy and its transmission companies expect to achieve similar results as the program expands eastward into the Met-Ed and Penelec service areas in Pennsylvania. A FirstEnergy transmission affiliate, Mid-Atlantic Interstate Transmission, LLC (MAIT), will build and own these facilities. FirstEnergy expects to invest more than $1 billion per year on transmission upgrades from 2018-2021.
Following are images from several of FirstEnergy's projects that are part of Energizing the Future.