FirstEnergyCorp. expects to energize and put into a service a new 138-kVtransmission line in Harrison and Doddridge counties, W.Va., by midsummer,according to an April 26 news release.

The transmission line is intended to the electricity demands of thearea's Marcellus Shale gas industry and help enhance service reliability fornearly 13,000 Monongahela PowerCo. customers around the Clarksburg and Salem areas.

The company is spending about $43 million of the $92 millionproject budget this year. A substation near Clarksburg has been expandedthrough the addition of new circuit breakers to accommodate the transmissionline. By May, the company is set to hoist 80 steel structures along the line's18-mile route and attach wire conductors to the poles.