West Penn Power Ready for Humid Summer

 

 

With the upcoming hot, humid summer months expected to
produce higher electric usage, West Penn Power, a FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiary, is completing projects, inspections and equipment maintenance in its 24-county western and central Pennsylvania service territory to enhance service reliability for customers.
Cost-effective helicopter patrols have completed inspections on more than 1,700
miles of FirstEnergy transmission lines located in the West Penn Power area. The
inspections are designed to look for damaged wire, broken cross arms, failed insulators, and other hardware problems not visible from the ground. Potential reliability issues identified during the inspection will be prioritized and addressed immediately.

On the ground, the summer readiness inspections include using “thermovision”
cameras to capture infrared images that can detect potential problems with West Penn Power substation equipment such as transformers and capacitors. By identifying hot spots, maintenance and repairs can be conducted prior to a power outage occurring.
Other utility work being done by West Penn Power crews includes inspecting
distribution circuits, including transformers, capacitors, reclosers and lightning arrestors to ensure the equipment is operational and the lines are ready to perform efficiently when demand for electricity increases during the summer, typically due to air conditioning usage.

“When the days get hot and the nights stay humid, our customers turn up their air
conditioning to keep cool,” said David W. McDonald, president of West Penn Power. “We proactively inspect and maintain our equipment to ensure system reliability to meet the increased electrical demand when the temperatures climb and customers depend on us to help them stay comfortable.”
Tree trimming is another key to preparing the West Penn Power system to meet
the rigors of summer operations by maintaining proper clearances around electrical systems and helping to protect against tree-related outages.

West Penn Power tree contractors have trimmed more than 1,700 circuit miles of electric lines since January and expect to trim another 2,800 miles by year end.

Crews also are finishing work on several projects in the West Penn Power service
area - near State College, South Huntingdon Township and in Washington County, among others - designed to help enhance the reliability of the electric system in time for the
summer.

A readiness exercise to test the company’s restoration process used to repair
storm-related power outages was also recently competed due to a trend of severe weather.