AKRON, Ohio – FirstEnergy says it is increasing it's investment in a project designed to give customers a more reliable source of power and prepare for future economic development in the valley

The utility announced Tuesday that it plans to invest an additional $2.8 billion over four years to expand plans to improve reliability and enhance service to communities, businesses and homes.

The project calls for the installation of 69 kilovolt transmission lines and new substations in northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

FirstEnergy spokesperson Mark Durbin tells 21 News that new substations and power lines are planned for Columbiana County and Alliance.  Durbin says that FirstEnergy is anticipating increased need by commercial and industrial interests such as those being spurred by development of the shale gas industry in the Valley.

Durbin says the project will also replace outdated equipment with state-of-the-art ‘smart' technology that can be operated remotely in order to help prevent some outages from occurring. And if an outage does occur, the new equipment can help reduce the number of customers who are affected, and shorten the duration.

The project is also designed to improve lower the company's overall transmission maintenance costs.

Work on the new "Energizing the Future" projects is expected to begin in 2014 and continue through 2017.