The Illuminating Company begins underground system work

Brecksville, Ohio-based The Illuminating Company announced Wednesday it has begun work on its underground power system.

The work in eastern Cuyahoga County, Ohio will boost service reliability, the company said. The cable upgrade will complement the more than $15 million in upgrades the company has done to its underground system over the past five years.

“This work demonstrates our commitment to hardening our system against power outages so we can keep power flowing to our customers,” Pat Mullin, acting president of FirstEnergy’s Ohio operations, aid. “We operate one of the nation’s largest underground electric systems, and these upgrades allow us to continue providing safe, dependable and affordable power to our customers.”

The Illuminating Company maintains more than 11,000 miles of underground wire in the Cuyahoga County area and is the process of replacing nearly 1.5 miles of older, uncoated undergrounds line in Pepper Pike with new coated lines. The work will make the lines more durable, the company said. Since beginning work in 2015, the company has replaced more than 100 miles of underground lines. Work in Pepper Pike is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

The Illuminating Company serves more than 750,000 customers in Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake and Lorain counties. To determine what locations needed underground updates, the company reviewed outage patterns across its service territory and identified areas that would most benefit.