FirstEnergy Invested $690 Million in 2014 in the Ohio Edison Service Area to Enhance Electric System

Company Completed Infrastructure and Reliability Projects to Help Reduce Outages and Handle Future Growth 

 

AKRON, Ohio, Jan. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its ongoing efforts to improve its electric system, FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) invested approximately $690 million in 2014 in the Ohio Edison service area on reliability infrastructure projects and other transmission- and distribution-related work, including building new transmission lines, new substations, and installing remote-control equipment to help reduce the number and duration of power outages.

More than $581 million of the total was spent on transmission-related projects owned by American Transmission Systems, Incorporated, a FirstEnergy transmission company. 

"We expect the results will show that in 2014 Ohio Edison performed better than the service reliability standards established by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, which we largely attribute to the work we have done to make our system more robust," said Randall A. Frame, regional president, Ohio Edison.  "The infrastructure projects we completed in 2014, and in previous years, are making a difference when it comes to reducing the number of outages our customers might experience."

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America's Critical Infrastructure Is Vulnerable To Cyber Attacks

Guest post written by Michael Assante for Forbes - Similar to the use of technology, the ability to regulate a solution is inherently limited. Regulation creates a compliance mentality in which policies and investments are based on achieving and maintaining compliance. Compliance is predictable, which makes it the hacker’s best friend.

Lack in security professionals who understand both digital security and control system technology

Legislation (HR 3696) has been introduced in the U.S. Congress that would increase the sharing of information related to control system breaches to better arm security professionals to prevent future breaches. That is a worthwhile goal; unfortunately, there is a dire lack of security professionals with an understanding of both digital security and control system technology to benefit from this information sharing.

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