West Penn Power begins initiative to upgrade its distribution system

West Penn Power is upgrading its distribution system in Butler County, Pa., as part of an effort to reduce lengthy service interruptions, particularly during severe weather.

The upgrade includes replacing worn equipment, repairing underground electric lines, and placing hundreds of protective devices on numerous power lines. The upgrades are part of West Penn Power’s Long Term Infrastructure Improvement Plan, a five-year, $147 million initiative to accelerate capital investments in the company’s electric distribution system.

“Together, these projects are designed to help reduce both the number and duration of power outages for about 15,000 customers,” Scott Wyman, president of FirstEnergy’s Pennsylvania operations, said. “Since 2016, we have invested more than $100 million to accelerate improvements to the distribution system that powers homes and businesses across West Penn Power’s service area.”

Crews will conduct inspections — both on foot and with drones — along a 13-miles of power line that serves more than 1,800 customers in the Portersville and Slippery Rock areas. The inspections will seek to identify cross arms, fuses, and other components needing repair or replacement to improve the line’s performance. The work will continue to downtown Butler City through June to convert a section of power line near Center Avenue from 4-kilovolts (kV) to 12-kV. This will result in more uniform voltage for 140 customers in the city. Some of the existing utility poles will have to be replaced with bigger poles to accommodate the new equipment.

Also, contractors will place about 300 new fuses on 16 power lines serving 13,000 customers located around Butler City and south along the Route 8 headed toward Pittsburgh. Fuses are devices that automatically open when they detect a system irregularity, such as a tree branch or animal contacting a power line. These fuses limit the scope of outages to smaller sections of a power line, resulting in fewer customers impacted by outages.

In addition, an electrical contractor will repair about one mile of aging underground power lines in the Dutchtown Village neighborhood near the main campus of Butler County Community College. Technicians will inject the power line with a silicone-based fluid that should prolong its useful life by 20 or 30 years. The fluid fills in cracks and spaces in the insulation encasing the wire, allowing the line to provide continued reliable electric service for a fraction of what it would cost to replace it. The work is slated for July and will benefit more than 70 customers.

West Penn Power – a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. — serves approximately 725,000 customers in 24 counties within central and southwestern Pennsylvania.