First Energy provided the following update on the power outages the City has been encountering in certain areas of the City over the course of the last several weeks. The outage that occurred on Friday, December 5th was caused by a squirrel. Most of the remaining issues are being caused by a sub-contractor working on the 64,000-volt Shawville 56 line. The contractor installed a temporary jumper so they could replace conductors, etc. safely. Unfortunately, the jumper burned through, tripping the system.
First Energy met with the sub-contractor on December 11 to discuss the outages they have been causing and reviewing what they need to do to prevent future outages as much as possible. The work being done by the sub-contractor is scheduled to be finished by December 22. While not guaranteeing any outages between now and December 22, First Energy anticipates the reliability to be vastly improved after that date.