New Penelec equipment to enhance electric
service reliability for more than 1,000 customers
ERIE,
Pa., Oct. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy
Pennsylvania Electric Company (FE
PA), a FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) subsidiary doing
business as Penelec in northwestern Pennsylvania, recently energized a new
transformer at a substation in Bradford to enhance electric service
reliability for more than 1,000 customers in Bradford and Bradford Township, including the University of Pittsburgh's Bradford campus.
The substation's previous transformer experienced an issue last
fall and could not be repaired. A mobile substation provided
temporary service to customers until a new transformer could be
located, transported and installed to help ensure long-term grid
stability.
John Hawkins, FirstEnergy
President,
Pennsylvania: "Resolving this critical issue was
a top priority so we could provide our customers – including
industrial facilities and the local Pitt campus – with reliable electric service. We
engineered a solution, identified a spare transformer capable of
handling the electrical load and installed the unit. I am pleased
to report the new transformer has been in service for more than two
months and operating as designed."
The new transformer measures 7-feet by-4-feet, stands 11 feet
tall and weighs nearly 40,000 pounds. A large crane hoisted the
unit over the substation fence and onto a concrete foundation.
Electricians installed new electric cables in the substation to
power the transformer's forced-air cooling fans, which provide more
capacity than the former transformer that relied on natural air
circulation to cool. Access into the substation was also enhanced
to prevent utility trucks from blocking the street when using the
front gate.
With the new transformer in place and operating properly, the
mobile substation has been disconnected and is ready for
deployment to where it is needed next.
Photos of a crane removing the old transformer from the
Bradford West Substation near the University
of Pittsburgh's Bradford
campus and the aerial saw are available for download on
Flickr.
The work is part of Energize365, a multi-year grid
evolution program focused on transmission and distribution
investments that will deliver the power FirstEnergy's customers
depend on today while also meeting the challenges of tomorrow. With
planned investments of $26 billion
between 2024 and 2028, the program will create a smarter, more
secure grid that will meet and exceed reliability targets and
accommodate electric vehicles, the electrification of homes and
businesses and clean energy sources.
Earlier this year, Penelec completed a significant forestry
project to improve electric service reliability for customers in
the Bradford area, some of whom
had experienced outages caused by off-right-of-way trees during
several powerful winter windstorms. About 40 tree-trimming
contractors worked for two months along three power lines to take
down roughly 1,400 dead, diseased or leaning trees that posed a
danger to poles and wires.
As part of that effort, contractor Aerial Solutions used a
helicopter saw to trim trees along a 13-mile power line running
through rugged, heavily wooded terrain from a substation in
Lewis Run which supplies much of
the Bradford region with
electricity. The aerial saw looks like a large chainsaw suspended
from a helicopter and is the ideal tool to cleanly remove limbs and
branches along power line corridors that are inaccessible for
bucket trucks or in environmentally sensitive areas. This fast,
safe and efficient method of trimming covers more area in a day
than ground crews might complete in a
week.
Penelec serves approximately 597,000 customers within 17,600
square miles of northern and central Pennsylvania and western New York. Follow Penelec on X @Penelec and on
Facebook at facebook.com/PenelecElectric.
FirstEnergy is dedicated to integrity, safety, reliability and
operational excellence. Its electric distribution companies form
one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems,
serving more than six million customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, West Virginia,
Maryland and New York. The company's transmission
subsidiaries operate approximately 24,000 miles of transmission
lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Visit
FirstEnergy online at firstenergycorp.com and follow
FirstEnergy on X @FirstEnergyCorp.
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SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.