FirstEnergy does preventive maintenance on plants for summer

FirstEnergy Corp. said on Monday that comprehensive preventive maintenance work has been completed on its coal, nuclear and natural gas generation stations in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to ensure smooth summer operations.

The tasks included inspecting and making necessary repairs on ventilation and cooling systems for the warmer-weather months. Treatments against algae and other organisms in cooling towers also have been used.

Increased air-conditioner use in the region during this time of year always elicits a boost in electric-power demand, and the company is ready for it.

"Weather forecasters are predicting more periods of warmer-than-normal temperatures in the Midwest and Northeast in 2015," Jim Lash, president of FirstEnergy, said. "In fact, elevated temperatures during the first two weeks of the month made May 2015 one of the warmest on record for many of the states we serve. FirstEnergy has invested thousands of hours completing summer-preparation activities at its generating plants to ensure they meet the needs of our electric customers as energy consumption increases along with the temperature."

These maintenance projects are further supported by long-term enhancements to several of the company’s generators and their transformers to the electrical grid. The company has a 17,000-megawatt capacity at all plants, which include water- and wind-generation plants, in addition to nuclear, coal and natural gas.