Mon Power works to improve reliability in Mon, Marion Counties

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Mon Power has completed work in Morgantown that is designed to reduce outages and a similar project in Fairmont will be completed by the end of the year.

According to Mon power spokesman Will Boye, The work in the Morgantown area is south of the I-68 & I-79 interchange and will benefit 440 customers in the Goshen Road area. The project has added a back up circuit, or power supply that can be activated during an outage while crews are repairing the primary line.

“When there’s an outage on their power line we can connect an alternate circuit,” Boye said,”That will provide them back up power in the event of an outage while we are working on their line.”

The system is not automatic, so the crew responding to make repairs would manually switch power when they arrive.

“We can have someone go out and switch them over,” Boye said,” Dramatically reducing the time they are without power and provide them with this back up feed while we repair their line.”

In Fairmont, work on a similar project that will connect about 900 residential customers in southeastern Marion County to an alternate line serving the central and eastern portions of the county.

“The Fairmont project will start at the end of the month and that is going to benefit 900 customers in the area,” Boye said,” And that will be complete by the end of the year.”

The Marion County work will help customers in Colfax, Hammond, Levels, Grassy Run, Quiet Dell, Bunners Ridge, Morgan Ridge and Little Creek.

Boye contends both projects are smart investments that improve reliability.

“Each of these projects cost approximately $250,000,” Boye said,” It’s a good investment because we can really dramatically reduce the amount of time folks are without power in the even of an outage.”

“Through projects such as these, we improve the operational flexibility of our system and help reduce the duration and frequency of service interruptions our customers might experience,” said Jim Myers, president of West Virginia operations for FirstEnergy.