Met-Ed Works to Complete Restoration to Customers Affected by Damaging Snowstorm

READING, Pa., Nov. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Crews from Metropolitan Edison Company (Met-Ed) and other FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE) utilities are working to complete restoration to the 12,000 customers who remain out of service following the heavy, wet snow from this past weekend.  As of 11 a.m. today, the company has restored service to 258,000 customers – more than 95 percent of all customers who lost power during the storm.

The counties most affected by the snowstorm include York, Berks, Bucks and Northampton.  Downed trees and branches and impassable roads hampered restoration efforts.

"As we work to safely complete our restoration to customers without service, I want to thank our customers for their patience," said Dave Karafa, Met-Ed regional president.  "This snowstorm was one of the worst storms in our company's history and has caused more damage than Hurricane Irene in August.  As our restoration efforts continue, we will continue sharing information with local officials and customers."

The Met-Ed storm restoration process employs a priority system for restoring service that emphasizes public safety and restores power to the largest number of customers as quickly as possible.  Eliminating safety hazards is the highest priority.  Crews arrive at trouble locations, make the area safe and move to other areas.  Once that is accomplished, crews begin to repair lines that supply power to crucial public safety facilities or large areas or groups of customers.  A line may be damaged in multiple locations, or at some distance from those who are out of service.  The linemen, tree crews or other workers that customers see may be on their way to make higher-priority repairs, which must be completed before damages closer to a customer's home can be fixed.

After local power lines are repaired and put back in service, damage to individual customer service wires may become apparent.  Customers should remember that if their neighbor's power is on and theirs is not, the problem may be isolated to their individual service, or service to the neighbor could be fed from a different circuit.  Customers are encouraged to report such problems, even if it is later in the restoration process.  

For updated information on our restoration efforts, current outages, FirstEnergy's storm restoration process and tips for staying safe, go to www.firstenergycorp.com.   Met-Ed will also provide updates via Twitter on @Met_Ed.

FirstEnergy reminds customers who have not yet reported an outage or downed line to call 1-888-LIGHTSS (1-888-544-4877).  

Met-Ed serves approximately 560,000 customers in 13 Pennsylvania counties.

FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence.  Its 10 electric distribution companies comprise the nation's largest investor-owned electric system.  Its diverse generating fleet features non-emitting nuclear, scrubbed baseload coal, natural gas, and pumped-storage hydro and other renewables, and has a total generating capacity of nearly 23,000 megawatts.

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.