{"id":6359,"date":"2026-08-18T17:10:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T22:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ohenergyratings.com\/blog\/?p=6359"},"modified":"2026-08-18T17:10:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T22:10:35","slug":"puco-seeks-3-million-fine-for-cleveland-power-outages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ohenergyratings.com\/blog\/puco-seeks-3-million-fine-for-cleveland-power-outages\/","title":{"rendered":"PUCO Seeks $3 Million Fine for Cleveland Power Outages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fines For Summer Power Outages<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Power
PUCO seeks to fine FirstEnergy $3 million dollars after power outages showed problems with its northern Ohio grid.<\/em><\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Last year, Lakewood went through a summer with the some of the most frequent power outages in history. Towns and lawmakers demanded that FirstEnergy<\/a><\/strong> had to fix its grid. But this summer, we’ve seen even more outages than we did last year. So, let’s delve deeper into why PUCO seeks $3 million fines for Cleveland power outages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Power Outages Surge in June<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Last year, from May until July, Lakewood saw a dozen summer blackouts<\/a> that disrupted homes and businesses. As a result, FirstEnergy<\/strong> promised to invest $12.5 million<\/a> into its grid to make it reliable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to this summer. Between June 30 and July 15, Lakewood saw seven blackouts. The first three occurred June 30, July 1, and July 2 with over 3,000 to 4600 customers affected. The third blackout cut power to over 1,000 customers for over 10 hours! More than 800 angry customers and several Lakewood officials<\/a> filed complaints with PUCO to look into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PUCO Investigates Power Outages<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When PUCO’s looked into the 2025 Lakewood blackouts, it found old electric gear at fault. However, with the 2026 power outages, PUCO has now found that many of the old hardware problems from last year remained. Worse still was that PUCO inspectors found utility line workers had used lawn sprinklers to cool overheating transformers<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers told PUCO that the power went out often and also took longer for the power to return. And with hot weather putting some customers’ health at risk, local officials were unable to plan how to help them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of this and that many of the same problems remained from 2025, PUCO has filed formal notice against FirstEnergy<\/strong>. It has also proposed $3 million fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FirstEnergy<\/strong> now has until August 21 to respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PUCO and FirstEnergy Clashes Continue<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Lakewood power outages have not been the only clash between FirstEnergy<\/strong> and PUCO<\/strong> this year. In February, FirstEnergy<\/strong> asked PUCO<\/strong> to give its utility companies more time to respond<\/a> to blackouts. PUCO<\/strong> denied that request<\/a> saying that FirstEnergy’s<\/strong> promised grid upgrades should reduce blackouts, most notably in Lakewood. Similarly, PUCO<\/strong> ordered FirstEnergy<\/strong> to defer $245 million<\/a> in storm damage costs over 25 years rather than five-years. However, PUCO plans to audit<\/a> to verify FirstEnergy’<\/strong>s cost claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What FirstEnergy Customers Can Do Today<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It’s unclear if a fine or an audit will lead to a more stable grid. But we can all agree that during hot summers blackouts are a huge problem. So it may be a great idea to plan ahead<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t forget that you can shop for the best energy deals in town at https:\/\/www.ohenergyratings.com<\/a>. You can also count on us for the news and tips that could affect your bills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fines For Summer Power Outages Last year, Lakewood went through a summer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":6380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mbp_gutenberg_autopost":false},"categories":[70,103],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ohenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6359"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ohenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ohenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ohenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ohenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6359"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.ohenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6384,"href":"https:\/\/www.ohenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6359\/revisions\/6384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ohenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ohenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ohenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ohenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}