ERIE, Pa., July 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania Electric Company (Penelec) is beginning work on approximately $11 million of additional electric system projects for 2016 to enhance service reliability for its 600,000 customers.
The work includes installing more durable polymer protective devices on wires and poles, replacing or rehabilitating electric lines, adding other special equipment, and installing automated and remote control devices – all designed to help reduce the number and duration of service interruptions.
These projects were identified in Penelec's five-year Long-Term Infrastructure Improvement Plan that was approved earlier this year by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. Ultimately, this special program will result in an additional $56 million being spent through 2020 on targeted distribution infrastructure enhancement projects in the Penelec area.
"The work is designed to benefit customers by complementing the projects we already do each year to enhance the reliability of our electric system," said Scott Wyman, regional president of Penelec. "Whether it's upgrading existing circuits or installing 'smart' equipment that can be operated remotely, our goal is to the make our system the best it can be when it comes to providing reliable service."
The scheduled projects in the Penelec service area in 2016 include:
- Spending approximately $3.2 million to replace porcelain protective switches on poles wires with new polymer devices. The switches – known as "cutouts" – automatically open up when a system irregularity is detected, serving to protect the electrical equipment and limit the number of customers affected by an outage. In 2016, protective switches will be replaced on 68 circuits in Altoona, Clearfield, Dubois, Erie, Lewistown, Oil City, Towanda, and Warren.
- Spending approximately $700,000 to add new connection points where circuits can be tied together, along with installing new sectionalizing devices such as fuses and automated switches, to help limit the number of customers affected when an outage occurs. Much of the work in 2016 will occur in the Oil City area.
- Installing radio controlled switches on electric circuits at a cost of about $820,000. These devices can be operated remotely from the company dispatch center, allowing operators the ability to restore power more quickly and efficiently than if a crew was needed to investigate the situation. This work will occur in Altoona, Dubois, Erie, Johnstown, Lewistown, Oil City and Towanda.
- Rehabilitating three power lines in Phillipsburg, one in Erie, and one in Oil City, including installing new wire and other equipment, as needed, at a cost of approximately $2.1 million.
- Replacing overhead wire, automated reclosing devices, transformers, fuses, and animal guards to help enhance overall customer service and reliability. This work will occur throughout the entire Penelec service territory and is expected to cost approximately $460,000 in 2016.
Penelec, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE), serves approximately 600,000 customers in 31 Pennsylvania counties. Follow Penelec on Twitter @Penelec and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PenelecElectric.
FirstEnergy is dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. The company's transmission subsidiaries operate more than 24,000 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp or online at www.firstenergycorp.com.
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Forward-looking statements involve estimates, assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, which may include the following: the speed and nature of increased competition in the electric utility industry, in general, and the retail sales market in particular; the ability to experience growth in the Regulated Distribution and Regulated Transmission segments and to successfully implement our sales strategy for the Competitive Energy Services segment; the accomplishment of our regulatory and operational goals in connection with our transmission investment plan, including, but not limited to, the proposed transmission asset transfer to Mid-Atlantic Interstate Transmission, LLC, and the effectiveness of our strategy to reflect a more regulated business profile; changes in assumptions regarding economic conditions within our territories, assessment of the reliability of our transmission system, or the availability of capital or other resources supporting identified transmission investment opportunities; the impact of the regulatory process on the matters at the federal level and in the various states in which we do business including, but not limited to, matters related to rates and the Electric Security Plan IV (ESP IV) in Ohio, specifically the order issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that rescinds the waiver regarding Electric Security Plan IV Purchase Power Agreement (ESP IV PPA) by and between FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. and The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, Ohio Edison Company and The Toledo Edison Company, and other future rehearing requests, complaints or challenges that could impact the ESP IV and the ESP IV PPA; the impact of the federal regulatory process on FERC-regulated entities and transactions, in particular FERC regulation of wholesale energy and capacity markets, including PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (PJM) markets and FERC-jurisdictional wholesale transactions; FERC regulation of cost-of-service rates, including FERC Opinion No. 531's revised Return on Equity methodology for FERC-jurisdictional wholesale generation and transmission utility service; and FERC's compliance and enforcement activity, including compliance and enforcement activity related to North American Electric Reliability Corporation's mandatory reliability standards; the uncertainties of various cost recovery and cost allocation issues resulting from American Transmission Systems, Incorporated's realignment into PJM; economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and margins such as a polar vortex or other significant weather events, and all associated regulatory events or actions; changing energy, capacity and commodity market prices including, but not limited to, coal, natural gas and oil prices, and their availability and impact on margins and asset valuations; the continued ability of our regulated utilities to recover their costs; costs being higher than anticipated and the success of our policies to control costs and to mitigate low energy, capacity and market prices; other legislative and regulatory changes, and revised environmental requirements, including, but not limited to, the effects of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan, Coal Combustion Residuals regulations, Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and Mercury and Air Toxics Standards programs, including our estimated costs of compliance, Clean Water Act (CWA) waste water effluent limitations for power plants, and CWA 316(b) water intake regulation; the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of the capital expenditures that may arise in connection with any litigation, including New Source Review litigation, or potential regulatory initiatives or rulemakings (including that such initiatives or rulemakings could result in our decision to deactivate or idle certain generating units); the uncertainties associated with the deactivation of certain older regulated and competitive fossil units, including the impact on vendor commitments and as it relates to the reliability of the transmission grid, the timing thereof; the impact of other future changes to the operational status or availability of our generating units and any capacity performance charges associated with unit unavailability; adverse regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes with respect to our nuclear operations (including, but not limited to, the revocation or non-renewal of necessary licenses, approvals or operating permits by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or as a result of the incident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant); issues arising from the indications of cracking in the shield building at Davis-Besse; the risks and uncertainties associated with litigation, arbitration, mediation and like proceedings, including, but not limited to, any such proceedings related to vendor commitments; the impact of labor disruptions by our unionized workforce; replacement power costs being higher than anticipated or not fully hedged; the ability to comply with applicable state and federal reliability standards and energy efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates; changes in customers' demand for power, including, but not limited to, changes resulting from the implementation of state and federal energy efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates; the ability to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic and financial goals, including, but not limited to, the ability to continue to reduce costs and to successfully execute our financial plans designed to improve our credit metrics and strengthen our balance sheet through, among other actions, our cash flow improvement plan and other proposed capital raising initiatives; our ability to improve electric commodity margins and the impact of, among other factors, the increased cost of fuel and fuel transportation on such margins; changing market conditions that could affect the measurement of certain liabilities and the value of assets held in our Nuclear Decommissioning Trusts, pension trusts and other trust funds, and cause us and/or our subsidiaries to make additional contributions sooner, or in amounts that are larger than currently anticipated; the impact of changes to material accounting policies; the ability to access the public securities and other capital and credit markets in accordance with our financial plans, the cost of such capital and overall condition of the capital and credit markets affecting us and our subsidiaries; actions that may be taken by credit rating agencies that could negatively affect us and/or our subsidiaries' access to financing, increase the costs thereof, and increase requirements to post additional collateral to support outstanding commodity positions, letters of credit and other financial guarantees; changes in national and regional economic conditions affecting us, our subsidiaries and/or our major industrial and commercial customers, and other counterparties with which we do business, including fuel suppliers; the impact of any changes in tax laws or regulations or adverse tax audit results or rulings; issues concerning the stability of domestic and foreign financial institutions and counterparties with which we do business; the risks associated with cyber-attacks and other disruptions to our information technology system that may compromise our generation, transmission and/or distribution services and data security breaches of sensitive data, intellectual property and proprietary or personally identifiable information regarding our business, employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, business partners and other individuals in our data centers and on our networks; and the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, and other similar factors. The foregoing factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements and risks that are included in our filings with the SEC, including but not limited to the most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all such factors, nor assess the impact of any such factor on FirstEnergy's business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. FirstEnergy expressly disclaims any current intention to update, except as required by law, any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.
