Exercise familiarizes FirstEnergy employees
with storm roles and processes
ERIE,
Pa., July 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy
Pennsylvania Electric Company (FE
PA), a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) doing
business in northern and central Pennsylvania as Penelec, recently completed an
emergency preparation drill focused on testing its storm
restoration process in the event severe weather causes outages
throughout its vast and heavily forested service area.
Individuals participated in the annual storm drill both remotely
and in person at Penelec's centrally located facility in
Clearfield, Pa. – a hybrid
approach similar to how employees conduct real-life restoration
activities using electronic storm tools to manage work in the
field. The drill was designed to prepare employees for storm
restoration duties and review restoration processes and
storm-management tools critical to safely and quickly getting the
lights back on.
John Hawkins, FirstEnergy's
President, Pennsylvania:
"Storm drills provide our employees a controlled, no-fault forum to
practice and sharpen their skills in preparation for severe
weather, including summer thunderstorms packing strong wind gusts.
Regular emergency drills are another way we work to improve
electric service for our customers, in addition to tree trimming
and projects we do to harden our electric infrastructure and
enhance its resiliency."
The drill's primary scenario focused on severe weather
with organized lines of powerful June thunderstorms capable of
producing gusts of greater than 70 mph sweeping across Pennsylvania. The gusts toppled trees, causing
widespread damage to poles and wires and disrupting electric
service to nearly 425,000 of Penelec's 597,000 customers.
Further complicating the weather drill was a hypothetical second
issue that involved significant damage to circuit breakers and
voltage-regulation equipment at two electric substations. Drill
participants had to quickly puzzle through the safe and efficient
restoration of power to customers in the wake of the storm knowing
the substations would not be available. Penelec drill participants
broke into groups to address topics including safety, logistics,
operations, and planning and analysis, among others.
As part of the training, Penelec activated its Incident Command
System (ICS). ICS is a nationally recognized and accepted emergency
management process used by all levels of government – federal,
state and local – as well as by many non-governmental organizations
and the private sector to coordinate the response to major storms
or other natural disasters.
In the aftermath of a major weather event, Penelec crews follow
a proven restoration process and typically address outages that
restore the largest number of customers before moving to more
isolated problems. They generally give priority to hospitals and
other critical medical facilities, communications facilities and
emergency response agencies. After that, crews work to restore
power as quickly as possible to the rest of the customers.
For more information about FirstEnergy's storm restoration
process and tips for staying safe, visit the 24/7 Power Center at
firstenergycorp.com/outages.
Penelec serves approximately 597,000 customers within 17,600
square miles of northern and central Pennsylvania. Follow Penelec on X, formerly
known as Twitter, @Penelec and on Facebook at
facebook.com/PenelecElectric.
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 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. Visit FirstEnergy online at firstenergycorp.com and
follow FirstEnergy on X @FirstEnergyCorp.
Editor's Note: A photo of FirstEnergy employees
conducting a storm drill is available for download on Flickr.
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/penelec-storm-drill-focuses-on-efficient-power-restoration-to-customers-following-severe-weather-302188156.html
SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.