At a public meeting with angry and frustrated Lakewood residents Monday evening, FirstEnergy laid out a $12.5 million plan to help alleviate frequent and long-lasting power outages.
Lakewood and West Side Cleveland FirstEnergy customers have dealt with multiple power outages over the last several months, including a high-temperature weekend in June that left several Lakewood residents without power for days.
FirstEnergy’s plans for Lakewood include repairs and upgrades to transformers and substation breakers, smart meter installations, added crews and additional inspections utilizing drone technology.
“Electricity is the life blood to many tasks in our daily lives. What this community has experienced is unacceptable and we’re committed to putting necessary investments and resources toward delivering better service,” said Sally Thomas, FirstEnergy’s vice president of distribution engineering and planning.
Lakewood councilmember Tom Bullock said the investment is a start, but added he also wants to see better communication from FirstEnergy to its customers.
“Will that fix the problem?" Bullock asked. “The thing that matters to Lakewood residents is, can we prevent the power outages? When a power outage is happening, does the power come back on quickly? When there are power outages, do people get assistance?”
One resident reliant on a wheelchair and an elevator said he was stuck on one floor in his house with the elevator not working during an outage.
Several residents expressed frustration of losing spoiled groceries in the outages and asked to be reimbursed.
Thomas said FirstEnergy would not be able to pay for damages caused by outages, but recommended residents call FirstEnergy to be helped on a case-by-case basis.
“What matters is people losing $230 in groceries because their freezer melted, people who work from home being disrupted, and that's an economic loss, people with medical equipment having to go to emergency shelters, people not being able to charge their cell phone,” Bullock said. “People can't get their cars in and out of the garage because their garage door opener doesn't work.”
Residents also discussed a lack of trust in FirstEnergy stemming from the frequent outages and the company’s involvement in a $60 million state bribery scandal in 2020.
“Even if we assume good intentions by everybody at the FirstEnergy meeting yesterday, it's in the middle of years of insufficient action," Bullock said.
