Exercise familiarizes FirstEnergy employees with storm roles and processes
Individuals participated in the storm drill both remotely and in-person at Met-Ed's
The drill's primary scenario focused on severe weather with organized lines of powerful June thunderstorms capable of producing gusts of greater than 70 mph sweeping across
Further complicating the weather drill was a hypothetical second issue that involved significant damage to two electric substations, communications lines and equipment. Drill participants had to quickly puzzle through the safe and efficient restoration of power to customers in the wake of the storm knowing the substations would not be available.
As part of the training, Met-Ed activated its Incident Command System (ICS). ICS is a nationally recognized and accepted emergency management process used by all levels of government “ federal, state and local “ as well as by many non-governmental organizations and the private sector to coordinate the response to major storms or other natural disasters.
In the aftermath of a major weather event, Met-Ed crews follow a proven restoration process and typically address outages that restore the largest number of customers before moving to more isolated problems. They generally give priority to hospitals and other critical medical facilities, communications facilities and emergency response agencies. After that, crews work to restore power as quickly as possible to the rest of the customers.
For more information about FirstEnergy's storm restoration process and tips for staying safe, visit the 24/7 Power Center at firstenergycorp.com/outages.
Met-Ed serves approximately 592,000 customers within 3,300 square miles of eastern and southeastern
FirstEnergy is dedicated to integrity, safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in
Editor's Note: A photo of FirstEnergy employees conducting a storm drill is available for download on Flickr.