Mon Power Has Restored 240,000 Customers Affected by Damaging Storms as Restoration Efforts Continue

Published on Thursday, 05 July 2012 15:33 Written by TradersHuddle Staff

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AKRON, Ohio, July 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 6,100 FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE) employees, contractors, and outside utility crew members continue their around-the-clock efforts to restore service to the 81,000 Mon Power and Potomac Edison customers in West Virginia who remain without service as a result of severe storms that have hit the region.

Mon Power has restored power to more than 240,000 of 280,000 customers affected by last Friday's storm.  In addition, approximately 40,000 customers had their service disrupted in subsequent storm events, including a powerful thunderstorm on Sunday.  Mon Power anticipates service will be restored to a majority of its customers by late Sunday evening.

Also, about 1,000 Potomac Edison customers in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia remain without service from Friday's storm.  The estimated restoration time for the majority of these customers is midnight tonight, with some isolated outages continuing into Friday. 

Overall, more than 566,000 FirstEnergy customers in West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania lost power as a result of the severe storm that hit the region last Friday.

As debris from the storm continues to be cleared, customers are cautioned never to touch downed lines.  Customers should always assume downed wires are carrying electricity and are reminded to keep their children and pets away from downed wires.  Downed wires should be reported immediately to your electric company or local police or fire department.  Customers should never try to remove trees or limbs from power lines because they could conduct electricity; instead, wait for emergency services or utility crews to arrive. 

Customers can view timely, accurate and easy-to-use outage information through FirstEnergy's "24/7 Power Center" maps, accessible on desktops, smart phones and mobile devices at www.firstenergycorp.com/outages.

During significant service interruptions, outage information is also available via the company's Twitter accounts.  A list of all accounts is available here:  www.firstenergycorp.com/newsroom/social_media.

Mon Power serves nearly 390,000 customers in West Virginia and Potomac Edison serves approximately 250,000 customers in Maryland and 135,000 customers in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.

FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence.  Its 10 electric distribution companies comprise one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems.  Its diverse generating fleet features non-emitting nuclear, scrubbed baseload coal, natural gas, and pumped-storage hydro and other renewables, and has a total generating capacity of nearly 23,000 megawatts.

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.