Public Utilities Commission of Ohio puts FirstEnergy on notice following outages

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has warned FirstEnergy, sending the power company a “notice of probable non-compliance” following a series of power outages in the Cleveland and Lakewood areas.

Outages in recent weeks have affected tens of thousands of Ohioans.

“PUCO Facilities and Operation Field Division employees conducted field visits to the Lakewood area in July following these outage reports,” PUCO Director of Service Monitoring and Enforcement Donald Leming wrote in a letter to FirstEnergy President Torrence Hinton, WKYC-TV reported.

“During these field visits, they identified a significant amount of infrastructure that seemed, on the whole, older than infrastructure found elsewhere in” the areas served by the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co., Leming added. “They also concluded that in the event of a serious weather incident there would be significant risks of extended outages due to the difficulty and complexity of repairing and replacing the infrastructure in light of its current age and configuration.”

According to the report, PUCO demanded that FirstEnergy provide “a detailed plan to improve the reliability of service to the city of Lakewood and nearby areas,” alert PUCO about “any additional outages impacting the Lakewood area,” and provide PUCO with “steps to improve communications to communities and customers who experience outages.”

PUCO is threatening FirstEnergy with fines of up to $10,000 per violation per day. The energy provider has until Aug. 8 to respond.

According to Cleveland.com, PUCO started looking into FirstEnergy last month after receiving letters from Lakewood Mayor Meghan George and Cleveland City Council members Brian Kazy and Charles Slife.

“FirstEnergy has an obligation to provide reliable power to our residents and our community, and they’re failing, and they need to be held accountable,” George told News 5 Cleveland.

“It’s challenging, because they do not have a proven track record of fixing the problem,” George previously told Cleveland.com.

The Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel has also asked PUCO to formally investigate recent FirstEnergy power outages, WOIO-TV reported. A formal investigation would enable evidentiary hearings on the outages and facilitate public participation.

“FirstEnergy consumers deserve answers about the outages — best gotten from a formal, public investigation process where consumers can be heard and evidence produced, explored, challenged, and debated,” Maureen Willis, agency director of the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, told the Akron Beacon Journal in a prepared statement. “The PUCO’s informal investigation doesn’t cut it.”

For its part, FirstEnergy apologized for the outages, blaming downed branches.

“We recognize how disruptive outages can be and apologize for any inconvenience our customers have experienced,” FirstEnergy told News 5 Cleveland in a statement. “We remain committed to ensuring reliable service and are taking steps to strengthen the infrastructure in Lakewood. Our crews are conducting thorough inspections and implementing targeted upgrades to improve system performance and reduce future interruptions.

“On Sunday, tree branches came into contact with high voltage power lines that serve several area substations, causing the outage,” FirstEnergy added. “The substation in Lakewood where we are accelerating long-term upgrades was not impacted. Crews restored power to all affected customers around 4:30pm.”

Earlier this month, PUCO told the Akron Beacon Journal that the agency was investigating electrical supply issues in Barberton following a series of power outages there.

“We don’t own or operate or maintain the power lines,” Barberton Councilman Thomas “Bebe” Heitic told the Akron Beacon Journal at the time. “The people who do… need to start doing their jobs and maintain it, operate it, and keep it running.”

Separately, last month, PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization serving Ohio and a dozen other states, sent a Maximum Generation Emergency Alert, asking power generators “to be ready to operate at maximum capacity if needed.” Energy demand was predicted to surpass the grid operator’s original estimate for the summer, and it could reach a point where it pays customers to reduce their energy usage.