Strong storms cause widespread power outages affecting members of Firelands Electric Cooperative

NEW LONDON — Firelands Electric reports that during height of Thursday's storm, the cooperative lost power to five substations and one metering point due to a loss of transmission power provided by both FirstEnergy/Ohio Edison and American Electric Power (AEP), which feed the cooperative's substations and local distribution system. Just after midnight, AEP transmission was restored, which energized Firelands' Boughtonville substation and Greenwich metering point. At that time, FirstEnergy/Ohio Edison advised Firelands that transmission power feeding its Fitchville, New London and Steuben substations would likely remain without power until midday Friday, at the earliest, due to multiple broken 110' transmission poles. Firelands' crews worked diligently throughout the night clearing trees and power line damage across its system. Crews were able to backfeed power from another transmission source to restore service to a majority of their member-consumers receiving power from the cooperative's Steuben substation. Firelands Electric Cooperative still has roughly 5,200 member-consumers without power this morning. This includes two substations, Fitchville and New London, a portion of their Steuben substation that could not be backfed from another transmission source, and also includes a portion of their system in Mifflin Township, Richland County. Firelands Electric is working to address roughly 30 broken poles and widespread damage to its system, especially in southern Huron County. The cooperative is receiving mutual aid this morning from Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative and North Central Electric Cooperative who will assist with the extensive amount of system damage. Firelands will remain in close contact with FirstEnergy/Ohio Edison on any updates regarding the transmission line that feeds power to Firelands' Fitchville, New London and Steuben substations. Firelands' line crews will continue working throughout the day to repair storm damage and get power restored. Outage information can be accessed at https://epay.firelandsec.com/ maps/public/OutageWebMap.