The 69-kilovolt line stretches just over 11 miles northeast through Springfield and Moorefield townships, with sections of the line running parallel to U.S. 68.
Horton Hobbs, vice president of economic development for the Greater Springfield Partnership, saw the new power line was installed and said reliable electricity is important to all in the community.
“Having reliable power is essential to residents and commercial and industrial users,” he said. “These upgrades are to make certain their system is as reliable as possible.”
ATSI replaced 105 wooden poles along six miles of the route, installed five new steel poles on foundations, installed new wires along a portion of the route and made equipment upgrades at four substations that connect to the line to help strengthen the line and prevent unplanned outages due to severe weather.
“With newly installed poles and equipment, this upgraded line will be better able to withstand severe weather, reducing the number and duration of unplanned outages for customers in the Springfield area,” said Carl Bridenbaugh, FirstEnergy’s vice president of transmission.
Thousands of customers in Clark County were without power on Sunday as severe thunderstorms moved across the region. At the height of the outages, nearly 4,000 customers were reported without power.
A tornado warning was also issued Sunday night for the county, as well as in Champaign County, which had a tornado confirmed in Christiansburg. The tornado was rated EF0, which is the weakest of tornadoes with wind speeds between 65 and 85 mph, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington.
Construction on the $20 million transmission line started in August 2022 and was completed in this month.
The project, part of Energizing the Future, is a multi-year initiative to upgrade FirstEnergy’s transmission system with advanced equipment and technologies to reinforce the power grid and help reduce the frequency and duration of outages.
Since 2014, FirstEnergy has upgraded or replaced existing power lines, incorporated smart technology into the grid and upgraded dozens of substations with new equipment and enhanced security features. Through 2022, FirstEnergy had invested more than $10 billion in the Energizing the Future initiative.
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