Work Underway to Strengthen Electric Grid in York County

Replacing wires and poles should help prevent or minimize outages for nearly 300 Met-Ed customers

READING, Pa., April 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy Pennsylvania Electric Company (FE PA), a FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) subsidiary doing business as Met-Ed in eastern Pennsylvania, is completing work to upgrade its energy delivery system in northwestern York County to help prevent or minimize the length of service disruptions, particularly during cold or hot weather when customers use more electricity to stay comfortable.

The project centers on replacing more than a mile of older copper wire on a neighborhood power line with larger-diameter aluminum wire capable of transporting more electricity, which should both enhance electric service reliability for about 300 Met-Ed customers in the Dillsburg area and meet the community's growing electrical needs.

John Hawkins, FirstEnergy President, Pennsylvania: "This proactive investment will help position our electric network to accommodate steady growth in York County, which has experienced an 8% increase in population since 2010."

Crews are replacing 1.3 miles of wire, 32 wooden poles, numerous crossarms, 40 fuses and 149 porcelain insulators along a portion of a 13.2-kilovolt (kV) power line that runs through the heart of Dillsburg. The line begins at a substation near Golf Course Road, travels east to Baltimore Street and then north along Baltimore Street to Welty Avenue.  

Crews are also installing 49 wildlife guards along the line to help prevent squirrels and other climbing animals from contacting transformers, fuses and switches, which can damage equipment and cause power outages. Animal guards are rubber boots or sleeves that cover transformer bushings, switches and other energized equipment.

The project is expected to be completed in April.

View and download a photo of line workers replacing a utility pole and crossarms and installing animal guards on the company's Flickr page.

The project is part of FirstEnergy Pennsylvania's Long Term Infrastructure Improvement Plan (LTIIP III), which includes a $382 million initiative to accelerate capital investments to the Met-Ed electric distribution system over five years to help ensure continued electric service reliability for customers.

LTIIP III is part of Energize365, a multi-year grid evolution program focused on transmission and distribution investments that will deliver the power FirstEnergy's customers depend on today while also meeting the challenges of tomorrow. With planned investments of $28 billion between 2025 and 2029, the program is creating a smarter, more secure grid that will meet and exceed reliability targets and accommodate electric vehicles, the electrification of homes and businesses and clean energy sources.

Met-Ed serves approximately 592,000 customers within 3,300 square miles of eastern and southeastern Pennsylvania. Follow Met-Ed on X @Met Ed and on Facebook at facebook.com/MetEdElectric.

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 approximately 24,000 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Follow FirstEnergy online at firstenergycorp.com and on X @FirstEnergyCorp.

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.