The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio said Aug. 28 it has identified trees and animal contact as the cause of most of the electrical outages in and around Barberton for the past two years.
The PUCO conducted an investigation after a series of electrical outages this spring that plagued residents and businesses in the city. The outages led to a letter from Barberton’s Mayor William Judge and City Council urging PUCO to examine the cause of the outages.
In a letter to FirstEnergy President Terrence Hinton signed by PUCO’s Director of the Service Monitoring and Enforcement Department Donald Leming, the agency summed up the investigation’s results and called for FirstEnergy to step up its tree-trimming schedule.
Hopocan Substation in Barberton on July 8.
“Our investigation reveals that, during the past two years, on- and off-corridor trees caused approximately 1/3 of the outages impacting sub-circuits in and around Barberton,” Leming said in the letter. “Of the remaining outages, almost half were caused by animal and bird contact with facilities. The presence of nearby on- and off-corridor trees may have contributed to the presence of animals and birds near the facilities.”
Trees blamed for outages at substations around Barberton
The PUCO investigation found that tree-trimming scheduled to be conducted by the end of this year at 11 sub-circuits had been delayed until the first quarter of next year.
“Of these sub-circuits, Camp Harding, Portage Lakes Robinson, Tusc (Barberton), Tusc Kellogg and Tusc Romig had significant numbers of outages over the past year as a result of on- and off-Corridor trees,” the PUCO letter said.
The investigation found five other sub-circuits in and around the city with outages that weren’t scheduled for tree-trimming until 2027 or 2028.
“PUCO staff recommends implementing a program within the city of Barberton to identify and remove high-risk off-corridor trees associated with these five sub-circuits,” the letter said.
PUCO awaiting response from FirstEnergy
Matt Schilling, public affairs director for PUCO, said Aug. 28 that the agency is requesting a response from FirstEnergy to its recommendations by Sept. 12.
“We’ll see where it goes from there,” he said. “We’ll have to evaluate that and determine what the next step is.”
PUCO is requesting a timeline from FirstEnergy for completion of maintenance at the 11 sub-circuits, maintenance revisions and plans to address off-corridor trees.
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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: PUCO finds trees, animals to blame for most Barberton power outages