FirstEnergy Corp. has announced plans to construct a $45 million transmission control center in Akron, Ohio. The Akron Control Center will be sited at the company's West Akron Complex, an existing 150-acre site that already houses an Ohio Edison service center, a FirstEnergy call center, and a large office building where several company subsidiaries are based.
According to FirstEnergy, the Akron Control Center will feature advanced computer systems to monitor electrical grid reliability in various geographic areas of the country where FirstEnergy has operations. Once operational, the new facility will oversee and monitor transmission operations in areas served by FirstEnergy's Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co., Toledo Edison, Pennsylvania Power, Metropolitan Edison, Pennsylvania Electric Co. and Jersey Central Power & Light utilities. In addition, FirstEnergy's Fairmont, W.Va., Transmission Control Center will continue to monitor transmission operations in areas served by the company's Mon Power, Potomac Edison and West Penn Power utilities.
The new facility will replace FirstEnergy’s existing Ohio Transmission Control Center located in Wadsworth, Ohio, which will be used as a backup and training facility. Most of the 112 employees who currently work in Wadsworth will be transferred to Akron in stages as the new facility is completed.
While preliminary site preparation work is being done this fall, ground breaking for the 70,000-square-foot facility is expected to occur in spring 2013, with planned completion of construction by the end of the year.
