Mon Power at work enhancing local electric lines in Morgantown and Fairmont, West Virginia

Mon Power is working to enhance local electric lines in south Morgantown and Fairmont, W.V, to boost operational flexibility and reduce outages for more than 1,300 customers.

The Morgantown efforts finished recently, improving service for more than 400 people, whereas the Fairmont work just began. The latter will aid service for another 900 customers in the area by connecting them to an alternate line serving the central and eastern portions of Marion County. That project should be finished by year’s end.

“Through projects such as these, we improve the operational flexibility of our system and help reduce the duration and frequency of service interruptions our customers might experience,” Jim Myers, president of West Virginia operations for FirstEnergy, said.

Mon Power has been at work on the Morgantown section for the past two months, toiling to add a new power line to connect residential customers to an alternate circuit. Doing so will give those customers a backup power feed to offset what would otherwise bring darkness if the area’s regular line was damaged or in need of service. More than 40 utility poles were replaced along the way.

Each project will cost approximately $250,000.