Service Restoration Nearly Complete for FirstEnergy Utility Customers Affected By Snow and High Winds
More than 98 Percent Restored Within 24 Hours
AKRON, Ohio, April 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) utilities are on track to restore service by early this evening to the remaining customers who lost power as a result of the heavy snow, rain and high winds that affected parts of its Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia service areas yesterday.
A total of approximately 110, 000 FirstEnergy utility customers experienced a service interruption as a result of the damaging weather event. As a result of the company's prompt restoration efforts, more than 98 percent of those affected had their power restored within 24 hours. As of noon today, the remaining outage totals by utility include:
- Penelec – about 500 customers without service; final restorations expected by late this afternoon/early evening
- West Penn Power – less than 1,000 customers without service; final restorations expected by late this afternoon/early evening
- Mon Power – less than 300 without service; final restorations expected by 4:00 p.m. today
As part of its storm restoration process, FirstEnergy was able to quickly mobilize crews and support resources from its Toledo Edison, Ohio Edison, Met-Ed, Potomac Edison and Jersey Central Power & Light utilities to provide assistance to the harder hit areas in the Penelec, West Penn Power and Mon Power regions. In addition, outside contractors and tree crews provided assistance to help speed the restoration effort.
To report an outage, customers should call 1-888-LIGHTSS (1-888-544-4877). Or, customers can utilize FirstEnergy's new "24/7 Power Center" online outage maps that are accessible on desktops, smart phones and mobile devices. The user-friendly system features industry leading mapping technology to quickly search for power outages by state, county, community or zip code. The maps also include links that allow customers to report service interruptions. FirstEnergy's "24/7 Power Center" outage maps are available at www.firstenergycorp.com/outages.
During significant service interruptions, outage information is also available via the company's Twitter accounts. A list of all accounts is available here: www.firstenergycorp.com/newsroom/social_media.
FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies – Ohio Edison, The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, Toledo Edison, Pennsylvania Power, Pennsylvania Electric Company, Metropolitan Edison Company, West Penn Power, Jersey Central Power & Light, Potomac Edison and Mon Power – comprise one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems. 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.
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