The proposed plan includes protections for customers, such as caps on recovery of Grid Mod II costs, annual PUCO audits, the companies’ reporting of metrics and a quarterly collaborative meeting with stakeholders. If approved by the PUCO, a typical FirstEnergy Ohio utility residential customer could expect to see an average monthly charge of about $2.40 for the length of the Grid Mod II plan. “The benefits of Grid Mod II for our Ohio customers through enhanced reliability, energy efficiency opportunities and innovative products and services are estimated to exceed the costs of the program by nearly $280 million in today’s dollars,” said Sam Belcher, senior vice president of FirstEnergy Operations.
The pilot program will also install a battery energy storage system to support increased EV charging load along the Ohio Turnpike and enhance grid reliability.įinally, the Grid Mod II plan calls for installed reclosers in neighborhoods throughout Ohio Edison and Toledo Edison’s service areas, particularly in areas prone to animal- or tree-related outages.įirstEnergy units wrap up electric power grid inspections as summer demand nearsįirstEnergy supports Ohio minority-owned businesses with $1M grantįirstEnergy Ohio utility customers to receive $306M in PUC settlement On the commercial side, two programs will provide incentives of up to $2,000 per EV charging port for up to 300 commercial customer locations, and incentives of up to $20,000 for up to six commercial or governmental customers with ten or more fully electric vehicles capable of bidirectional power flow. In the residential program, 600 customers will receive up to incentives of up to $750 to install fast chargers. Central to these programs is the testing of higher capacity residential and commercial EV chargers that can charge vehicles faster, the ability to reduce costs by shifting charging demand away from peak demand periods and the use of EV chargers that permit the bidirectional flow of power so that certain EVs can both draw from and contribute power to the grid, said FirstEnergy. The filing also includes several pilot programs related to electric vehicle charging.
In addition, Grid Mod II would offer smart thermostat rebates of $50 per thermostat.
FirstEnergy said the ability to use smart meter data to detect and locate outages more quickly and provide timely storm restoration information will be available in the future. Smart Meters help customers track and their own energy use and can help the utility by offering better insight into the health of distribution lines in specific neighborhoods. The Grid Mod II smart meter program follows installation to date of approximately 704,000 smart meters as part of Grid Mod I. 700,000 smart meters along with the necessary supporting communications infrastructure and data management system.Voltage regulating equipment on nearly 220 grid sections that can provide energy savings by reducing the amount of electricity that must be generated and that allows all customers served by a single power line to receive the same flow of safe, reliable power by evenly distributing electricity down the line.
Automated equipment on nearly 240 distribution grid sections that can automatically isolate problems, minimize the number of customers impacted by an outage and quickly restore electric service.Key components of Grid Mod II include installing: The filing, known as Ohio Grid Mod II, proposes a four-year, $626 million investment plan that builds upon system upgrades completed since the PUCO approved the utilities’ Grid Mod I plan in 2019. On July 18, FirstEnergy’s Ohio utilities - Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company and Toledo Edison - filed a plan with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) that would expand investments in smart grid technology, including equipment to help reduce the frequency and duration of power outages for customers. FirstEnergy utility worker completes the grid modernization work under the Grid Mod I plan.