Metropolitan Edison Company completes substation upgrades in Reading, Pennsylvania
Metropolitan Edison Company (Met-Ed), a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., recently completed equipment upgrades to a substation in Reading, Pennsylvania, to improve service reliability and help to meet increasing electricity demand for customers in the Glenside area of the city.
The $3 million project involved replacing a transformer and other equipment in the substation. The project was designed to increase capacity without building new power lines or expanding the substation’s footprint.
“Refurbishing this substation will help position our system to better meet the electrical growth that has occurred in the Glenside area of Reading during the past 50 years,” Ed Shuttleworth, regional president of Met-Ed, said. “The planning work for this project began late last year and construction has been completed in a timely and efficient manner to help us deliver the safe and reliable electric service our customers have come to expect.”
The upgrade also included new circuit breakers and relay devices, which automatically stop the flow of electricity during events, such as tree-related outages or lightning strikes to protect equipment. The new equipment allows Met-Ed dispatchers to remotely monitor conditions at the substation and reset the devices to decrease the duration and number of affected customers if needed during an outage.
