Mercer County, Pa. - Winter storm season is fast approaching. That's why FirstEnergy is continuing to expand its smart grid in Mercer County to help prevent lengthy outages, especially during severe weather.

Work is currently underway to install new, automated equipment and technology in distribution substations and along neighborhood power lines serving over 20,000 customers in Sharon, Sharpsville, Hermitage, Transfer, Greenville, West Middlesex, Hartstown, Conneaut and more.

This is all part of Penn Power's second phase long-term infrastructure improvement plan approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission to help enhance service for customers.

These investments have successfully reduced the number of outages and the length of outages by up to 20% in areas where work has been completed. Work is expected to be completed everywhere sometime in December.

These new electrical devices will work like a circuit breaker in a home that shuts off power when trouble occurs with the added benefit of automatically reenergizing a substation or power line within seconds for certain types of outages to keep power flowing safely for customers.

This technology is safer and more efficient, as it allows utility personnel to automatically restore service to customers instead of sending a crew to investigate.

In addition, automated voltage regulators are being installed to help ensure safe, constant voltage levels along power lines on extremely hot or cold days that create a higher demand for electricity.

The devices can also help provide energy savings by evenly distributing electricity to all customers served by a single power line to receive the same flow of safe, reliable power.

Additional power lines are being constructed to provide more flexibility in restoring outages due to events such as storms and vehicle accidents.

The new power lines will also help reduce the length and number of customers impacted during an outage by switching them to a backup line for faster restoration.