FirstEnergy Corp.’s Pennsylvania utilities completed more than $120 million in major projects over the last year, including infrastructure and technological upgrades to the electric distribution system.

The investment is part of a five-year plan designed to enhance electric service reliability and minimize the impact of outages for two million customers served by Penn Power, West Penn Power, Penelec and Met-Ed.

The $572 million capital investment plan, which runs from 2020 to 2024, builds on $360 million in similar system improvements made from 2016 to 2019 during phase one of the plan.

Projects include accelerated distribution work to replace older utility poles, underground and overhead lines and fuses; installing new substation equipment, network vaults and manhole covers; reconfiguring circuits; and placing more automated equipment in the field.

Met-Ed’s projects have reduced the frequency of service interruptions from line and equipment failure by about 9% in 2020 compared to 2019.

Penelec’s automated technology coupled with well-trained control center dispatchers allowed power to be restored in five minutes or less to 45% more customers in 2019 compared to 2015.

Penn Power’s projects have reduced the frequency of service interruptions by 20% for customers in areas where work has been completed since 2016.

West Penn Power’s projects have reduced service interruptions from line and equipment failure by about 10% per year from 2018 to 2020.