FirstEnergy, Ohio Edison install new security fencing, thermal-monitoring cameras to thwart metal thieves at substations

Sept. 16--FirstEnergy and its subsidiaries, including Ohio Edison, are installing security fencing and monitoring systems at some of its substations in an effort to thwart metal thieves.

The new fencing, which replaces traditional chain-link fences and barbed wire, features holes that are too small for bolt cutters and is virtually impossible to climb under or over, spokesman Doug Colafella said. There is also upgraded thermal-imaging cameras and loud speakers that monitor the upgraded substations around the clock.

Would-be thieves will hear a voice over loudspeakers, Colafella said.

"In other words, FirstEnergy's watching and we have law enforcement on speed dial," he said.

The upgrades to the fencing are part of Akron-based FirstEnergy's previously announced $4.2 billion in upgrades to its transmission systems through 2017. The parent company is spending $15 million this year in substation security enhancements in Northeast Ohio with surveillance and fencing, and $5 million within Ohio Edison's territory, Colafella said.

"Metal theft is an epidemic, and electric utilities are front and center," said Colafella, who declined for security reasons to specify how many substations have been upgraded or their locations. About 10 have been upgraded in the Ohio Edison service area this summer, with another 10 planned in the next year, he said.

According to a National Insurance Crime Bureau study from May, Ohio has led the nation in metal thefts for at least the past two years. Last year alone, metal thieves inflicted more than $500,000 in losses at FirstEnergy'sNortheast Ohio facilities, including a fatality at an Ohio Edison substation in Mansfield this summer during an attempted metal theft, Colafella said.

For Ohio Edison, there were 62 break-ins at substations, he said, with $250,000 in losses.

"It seems incomprehensible that our substations are victimized from break-ins," Colafella said, "but it happens."

Substations are like "off-ramps on freeways," he said in explaining their function. At the Star Transmission Substation in Wadsworth, for example, the behemoth facility converts electricity from high-voltage 345-kilowatt lines and 138-kilowatt lines to lower voltages that are suitable for delivery to homes and businesses.

He said metal thieves usually are looking for grounded copper wire or other metal, but because they don't know the complexities of the high-powered electrical transmission substations, they either get injured, burned or in rare cases, die.

Colafella said thieves are not climbing the actual electrical transformers or lattice structures, knowing that would be suicide, but the thefts can cause outages for customers.

"They can leave a community without power for an afternoon because someone stole $150 worth of metal," he said.

Thieves usually will cut a hole in the fencing or pull up the chain-link fencing to crawl under, said Kelley Ryan, who works for FirstEnergy's corporate security unit.

The new material, which was manufactured by Northeast Ohio company Niles Fence, makes it nearly impossible to grab a foothold on the fencing or use any type of bolt cutters or wire cutters to cut a hole big enough to pass through, she said.

Colafella said the new fencing is buried in the ground, which makes it very difficult for thieves to pull up.

That also helps keep small animals from getting beneath the fences and into the substations, Ryan said.

Thermal-imaging cameras on the upgraded substations are equipped with night-vision capabilities and software that can determine whether an intruder is a human or animal, Ryan said.

The fencing upgrades are initially being done only in Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania with Ohio Edison (and its subsidiary, Penn Power) and Cleveland Electric Illuminating.

The fencing is not completely foolproof, "but the idea is to slow a potential intruder and gives authorities a longer chance to apprehend someone," Colafella said.

Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or [email protected]. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty.

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