Ohio Edison builds new line to support shale gas facility

As part of its efforts to help support Ohio's growing shale gas industry, FirstEnergy Corp. recently completed a new 3.5 mile, 138 kilovolt kV transmission line in its Ohio Edison territory to serve a Pennant Midstream natural gas processing facility in Springfield Township in Mahoning County. The nearly $3 million project replaces temporary equipment installed earlier and allows for future expansion at the facility.

The plant is a midstream processing facility that separates natural gas into dry and liquid components and uses large amounts of electricity.

"With the natural gas industry bringing new employment and business development opportunities to Ohio, FirstEnergy and Ohio Edison are expected to keep pace by continuing to upgrade our system to meet this growing demand for safe and reliable electric service," said Randall A. Frame, regional president, Ohio Edison.

The new line connects with an existing 138 kV transmission line in Mahoning County. The project included installing 81 new wooden poles and 1 steel pole in approximately 3.5 miles of new right-of-way to a substation located at the Pennant Midstream facility. Earlier this year, Ohio Edison installed a temporary 69 kV transmission line and mobile substation to handle the electricity needs for Pennant Midstream's construction and start-up activities. With the completion of the new 138 kV transmission line, the temporary equipment was removed.

The new transmission line is owned and operated by American Transmission Systems, Incorporated, a FirstEnergy transmission affiliate.

The work is part of FirstEnergy's plans to invest approximately $730 million in 2014 on service reliability infrastructure enhancements and transmission projects in the Ohio Edison area.