AKRON, Ohio -- FirstEnergy Corp. has completed a new 3.5-mile, 138-kilovolt transmission line in its Ohio Edison territory to serve a Pennant Midstream natural gas processing plant in Springfield Township in Mahoning County, it announced Thursday.

The utility described the project as one aspect of its efforts to support the growing shale gas industry in Ohio.

The nearly $3 million project replaces the temporary equipment installed earlier and allows for expansion at the plant.

The midstream processing plant uses huge amounts of electricty to separate natural gas into dry and liquid components. "With the natural gas industry bringing new employment and business development opportunities to Ohio, FirstEnergy and Ohio Edison are expected to keep pace by continuing to upgrade our system to meet this growing demand for safe and reliable electric service," said Randall A. Frame, regional president for Ohio Edison, in a prepared statement.

The new line connects with an existing 138-kV transmission line in Mahoning County. The project included installing 81 new wooden poles and one steel pole in 3½ miles of new right-of-way to a substation at the Pennant Midstream plant. Earlier this year, Ohio Edison installed a temporary 69-kV transmission line and mobile substation to handle the electricity needs for Pennant Midstream's construction and startup work. With the completion of the 138-kV line, the temporary equipment was removed.

The new line is owned and operated by American Transmission Systems Inc., a FirstEnergy transmission affiliate.

The work is part of FirstEnergy plans to invest approximately $730 million this year on enhancing service reliability infrastructure and transmission projects in the Ohio Edison territory.

Ohio Edison serves more than one million customers across 36 counties in Ohio.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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