W.Va. Utility Moves to Facility with More Space for Fleet

Mon Power (W.Va), a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., has moved its operations to a new service center 12 miles southwest of its old location. The new facility offers more enclosed space for utility trucks and equipment. 

The decision to move and requirement for additional indoor space was needed after a 2016 flood swamped the old facility's outdoor storage yard. This was not the first time the utility experienced flooding, but the severity of the flood did help influence the decision to move. The new service center is out of the flood zone and situated on a hill, 800 feet higher than the old building.

The new facility offers twice the amount of storage space as before, with enough space to park all of the utility's trucks and much of the materials needed to upgrade electric facilities and make repairs.

"Winters are fierce in Webster County, and the ability to park all of our trucks inside a climate-controlled garage and out of the weather is a real benefit for our line crews and, ultimately, our customers," Holly Kauffman, president of FirstEnergy's West Virginia operations, said.  "We can respond to outage calls more quickly when we don't need to scrape frozen windshields and remove snow from trucks."

Mon Power modified the new location before the move, including adding a new garage entrance tall enough to fit bucket and digger trucks.