FirstEnergy : Invested $146 Million in the Toledo Edison Service Area in 2015 to Help Enhance Electric System

AKRON, Ohio, Jan. 28, 2016 -- To help reduce the number and duration of potential power outages, FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE) invested about $146 million in 2015 in the Toledo Edison service area on infrastructure projects and other work, including building new transmission lines and substations to help enhance the reliability and flexibility of its electric system.

'The work we completed in 2015 and in previous years is making a difference when it comes to reducing the number and length of outages our customers might experience,' said Rich Sweeney, regional president of Toledo Edison. 'We expect the results will show that in 2015 Toledo Edison customers overall experienced less than one outage for the year, with power being restored, on average, in about 90 minutes.'

Some of the key FirstEnergy projects in Toledo Edison's northwest Ohio service area in 2015 included:

• Completing a new $18 million, 48-mile transmission line that runs through parts of Fulton, Henry, Lucas and Wood counties to help enhance service reliability in the region by strengthening the grid and increasing flexibility and redundancy.
• Spending about $10 million to complete a new transmission substation south of Perrysburg to help enhance service reliability in the region.
• Replacing a large transformer at a substation near Sylvania at a cost of nearly $3 million to enhance reliability.
• Upgrading equipment on distribution circuits throughout the region at a cost of about $4 million to help reduce the number and duration of outages. The work included adding and replacing transformer banks, lightning protection and grounding devices, insulators, cross arms and braces, and animal guards.
• Investing more than $2.2 million inspecting and replacing distribution poles in the Toledo Edison service area. More than 21,000 utility poles were inspected in 2015 and replaced or repaired, as needed.
• Replacing 345-kilovolt circuit breakers at a substation at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station at a cost of about $1.5 million.

About $100 million of the total was spent on transmission-related projects owned by American Transmission Systems, Inc., a FirstEnergy transmission company.

Planning is continuing for additional projects that are expected to be completed in 2016, including new substations, transmission lines and circuit upgrades.

Toledo Edison also began using two new apps in 2015 to more efficiently assess damage to the electrical system and dispatch crews to make repairs in the wake of major storm events. Employees in the field can use this new mobile device technology to automatically enter damage information into the company's outage management system which helps restore the most customers to service in the shortest amount of time.

In 2015, Toledo Edison, along with FirstEnergy's other utilities, also reinstated the Power Systems Institute, a unique worker training program that combines learning hands-on utility skills at company training facilities with technical coursework at local community college classrooms. About 25 students currently are enrolled in the Power Systems Institute program in the Toledo Edison area, with recruiting efforts underway for the next class that will begin school this fall. Information about the Power Systems Institute is available at www.firstenergycorp.com/psi or by calling 800-829-6801.

Toledo Edison serves more than 300,000 customers in northwest Ohio. Follow Toledo Edison on Twitter @ToledoEdison or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ToledoEdison.

FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company 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, while its generation subsidiaries control nearly 17,000 megawatts of capacity from a diversified mix of scrubbed coal, non-emitting nuclear, natural gas, hydro and other renewables. Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp or online at www.firstenergycorp.com.

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