Mon Power Adds New Line and Substation Employees from Power Systems Institute Training Program

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Jun 14, 2017, 13:14 ET

FAIRMONT, W.Va., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mon Power, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE), has hired 20 new line and substation employees from the Power Systems Institute (PSI) training program as part of its ongoing efforts to enhance service reliability for customers in West Virginia.

The new employees include 18 line workers and two new substation electricians who are recent graduates of the company's Power Systems Institute (PSI), a utility training partnership established in 2012 with Pierpont Community & Technical College in Fairmont, W.Va.

"The PSI program is the pipeline that ensures we have well-trained, highly skilled employees to provide safe, reliable electric service for our customers," said Holly Kauffman, president of FirstEnergy's West Virginia Operations. "The new graduates will work shoulder-to-shoulder with our veteran linemen and substation personnel, and fill key jobs as current employees retire."

The new Mon Power lines employees, listed by work location, with their hometowns are:

Clarksburg – Richard Gordon, Fairmont; Delbert Parsons, Buckhannon
Elkins – Jared Akers, Elkins; Zachary Judy, Elkins
Kingwood – Lyle Groves, Jr., Bruceton Mills
Marlinton – Seth Doss, Marlinton
Morgantown – Brian Lasure, Morgantown; Dakota Tasker, Masontown, Pa.
Parkersburg – Thomas Eaton, Washington
Sistersville – Tyler Gibson, Sistersville
Spencer – Joshua Jones, Spencer; Mitchell Sponaugle, Franklin
Weirton – Nathan Anderson, Hacker Valley; Trevor Jennings, Thornton
Weston-Buckhannon – James Hager, Weston; Patrick Mollohan, Duck
White Hall – Jacob Brunett, Idamay; Colton Connor, Fairmont.

The new Mon Power substation employees, listed by work location with their hometowns are:

Fairlea – Bobby Helmick, Sutton
White Hall – Skylar Rucker, Grafton.

PSI is an award-winning, two-year educational program originally developed by FirstEnergy in 2000 to help prepare the company's next generation of utility line and substation workers.

The PSI curriculum requires two-and-a-half days each week spent at Pierpont completing academic course work with the remainder of the week spent at a Mon Power training facility in White Hall, W.Va., focusing on safe work practices and procedures in the electrical environment. Ultimately, students earn an associate of applied science degree in Electric Utility Technology.

Since the program was developed in 2000, FirstEnergy has hired nearly 1,500 line and substation personnel who completed PSI programs in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and West Virginia.

For information about how to enroll in the PSI program, call 1-800-829-6801, or go to www.firstenergycorp.com/psi.

Mon Power serves about 385,000 customers in 34 West Virginia counties. Visit FirstEnergy on the web at www.firstenergycorp.com and follow Mon Power on Twitter @MonPowerWV.

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. Visit FirstEnergy online at www.firstenergycorp.com. Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp.

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.