Toledo Edison invests $7.7M in Holland

Toledo Business Journal, Oct 01, 2005

Toledo Edison is beginning construction on an expansion project in Holland, Ohio. The company already operates a service center at the intersection of Angola and McCord Roads; this project will add a second freestanding building on adjacent Property, and the existing building will be renovated. Ile new building will be two stories and over 41,000 square feet. The existing budding is approximately 20,000 square feet. The renovations will begin at the current facility after the new facility is complete. As we go to press, construction is expected to begin this month with completion slated for August 2006.

According to Chuck Krueger, vice president of external relations for Toledo Edison, the driving force behind this project is to provide a state-of-the-art dispatch center. Currently, dispatching in the area is handled out of a service center in Delaware, an older facility. FirstEnergy is currently working to upgrade all of its dispatching operations. Ile Delaware site will still be maintained and owned by Toledo Edison, but the Primary dispatch center for the area will become the Holland facility once the current project is complete. The area served is bordered on the west by the Indiana state line, Michigan to the north, east to Port Clinton, and just north of Bowling Green to the south.

"We're constantly taking a look at where our services are needed," explained Krueger, "and trying to put the right work groups where they belong. So in addition to the dispatch center, we are probably going to realign some of our engineering groups - right now there are some in Toledo, Northwood, Wauseon. We'll take a look at how those folks work, and if it makes sense to move them to the new Holland facility, we're going to do that."

The Holland facility currently houses some engineering work, as well as electric metering activity. "It's primarily what we call a line shop," stated Krueger. "The crews with heavier equipment are located there. We have a huge garage area and extensive open warehouse yard." These elements will remain after the current project is complete.

Holland was selected for this project primarily because it was the only location where Toledo Edison already owned land adjacent to a current operation that would be able to accommodate the project. The total investment in the Holland expansion will be about $7.7 million, including construction and interior finishing. The architect for the project is Vetter Design Group Architects and the general contractor is 'Me Lathrop Company.

The centerpiece of the new facility will be the dispatch center, which includes a range of consoles and display screens that depict electronically the system as a whole. The dispatchers switch electric loads to ensure the system is in balance. In the case of repairs, the dispatchers can isolate a section where work will take place without interruption to customers nearby.

This also works for unscheduled repairs. Krueger explained that if, for example, a car struck a pole and power was lost to 2,000 customers, the dispatchers could remotely reroute the majority of them to other supply lines within about 15 minutes, perhaps before the repair crew has even arrived at the site of the accident.

Another need that is driving this project is FirstEnergy's business continuity plan, which has become a larger focus for many companies since the September 11 terrorist attacks. Krueger explained that the company wants to make sure that it is prepared to vacate an operation and continue its work at another location - making sure it has the office and engineering space available in case it would become necessary.

Toledo Edison, Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating, and sister companies in Pennsylvania and New Jersey all have similar dispatching capabilities. In Wadsworth, Ohio, a centralized dispatching area looks at all of the FirstEnergy Companies. Several of these are being updated.

FirstEnergy is also in the process of constructing an incident command center in the Akron area. "in the event of a largescale storm or disaster - manmade or natural - we will be able to set into operation this incident center."

Throughout all of FirstEnergy, the company plans to spend approximately $1 billion through 2006 making a range of technology improvements like the current project in Holland.

Since deregulation, FirstEnergy has been split into separate entities. "The Bay Shore Power Plant in Oregon is part of our fossil generation company," stated Krueger. "Davis Besse out in Port Clinton is part of the nuclear generation company. Toledo Edison is part of the energy delivery company, and within energy delivery, we have about 380 employees. If you add the two power plants in the area, that adds another 1,100 or 1,200."