FirstEnergy seeks Ohio’s approval to let power outages last longer, happen more often
Cleveland.com••business
Key Points:
- FirstEnergy has requested Ohio regulators to allow its subsidiaries—Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co., Ohio Edison, and Toledo Edison—to extend the allowable time to restore power after outages and to increase the number of permissible outages annually.
- The utilities have experienced worsening reliability since 2019, with CEI failing to meet outage duration standards for two years and seeking to increase average outage restoration times by up to 15 minutes.
- Cities including Cleveland, Barberton, and Lakewood oppose the request, citing increased risks to public safety, health, and economic impacts from prolonged outages, and have called for an independent investigation into frequent and lengthy power failures.
- FirstEnergy attributes increased outages mainly to factors beyond its control, such as trees falling outside trimming zones and
