Potomac Edison work will help prevent or
minimize outages for thousands of customers
WILLIAMSPORT, Md., Feb. 13,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE)
subsidiary Potomac Edison has completed service reliability
projects that will enhance electric service and minimize the impact
of power outages for nearly 5,000 customers in Allegany, Frederick and Garrett counties.
Don McGettigan, Acting
President of FirstEnergy's Maryland Operations: "Continually
investing in upgrades to our system helps us restore service to our
customers faster following severe weather and reduce the number of
momentary and sustained power outages our customers
experience."
The two projects allow Potomac Edison personnel to keep
customers' lights on by automatically switching them to an
adjacent power line if wires or equipment on their regular line are
damaged or need to be taken out of service. By connecting customers
to a second source of power along the north side of Interstate 68
between Grantsville and
Frostburg in Garrett and Allegany counties, and from West Patrick
Street North to Yellow Springs Pike in Frederick county, thousands of customers in
the West Frederick, Frostburg and Finzel areas will experience fewer and shorter
service disruptions.
Hundreds of homes and businesses in the area also will benefit
from the installation of 14 new automated reclosing devices in
substations and along neighborhood power lines that will help limit
the frequency, duration and scope of service interruptions.
Watch a video that explains how smart grid
technology works, including reclosers.
These electrical devices:
- Work like a circuit breaker in a home that shuts off power when
trouble occurs, with the added benefit of automatically
reenergizing a substation or power line within seconds for certain
types of outages to keep power safely flowing to customers.
- Are safer and more efficient because they often allow utility
personnel to automatically restore service to customers instead of
sending a crew to investigate.
- Isolate the outage to that area and limit the total number of
affected customers if the device senses a more serious issue, like
a fallen tree on electrical equipment.
- Quickly pinpoint the location of the fault and help utility
personnel better understand the cause of the outage to help speed
restoration.
In addition to these system enhancements, Potomac Edison
proactively replaced about 50 miles of aging underground cable with
a more reliable type of cable designed to withstand elements like
dirt, rocks, lightning and water.
Potomac Edison serves about 285,000 customers in all or parts of
Allegany, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Howard, Montgomery, and Washington counties in Maryland and 151,000 customers in the Eastern
Panhandle of West Virginia. Follow
Potomac Edison at potomacedison.com, on X, formerly known as
Twitter @PotomacEdison, and on Facebook at
facebook.com/PotomacEdison.
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 more than 24,000 miles of transmission lines
that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Follow
FirstEnergy online at firstenergycorp.com and on X
@FirstEnergyCorp.
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SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.