Associated Press Published

FirstEnergy Making Upgrades in West Virginia

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FirstEnergy Corp. is working on about $100 million in new transmission projects and evaluating additional system upgrades in West Virginia.

The additional upgrades are aimed to support northern West Virginia’s rapidly expanding Marcellus Shale gas industry as well as enhance electric service reliability for Mon Power’s customers.

The company says the new facilities include high-voltage substations and transmission lines to accommodate expanding natural gas processing facilities and other energy-intensive operations in West Virginia’s Marcellus Shale region.

New gas customer facilities are projected to account for load growth of about 400 megawatts through 2019. That’s about 200,000 new homes in Mon Power’s system.

Mon Power serves about 385,000 customers in 34 West Virginia counties.