The City of Lakewood has supplemented the complaint it filed in July with The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) following recent admissions by FirstEnergy’s CEO that the power grid serving Lakewood is “too old,” “not reliable,” “needs to be replaced,” and is from the Thomas Edison era. Lakewood Mayor Meghan F. George issued a letter to PUCO citing the public statements by FirstEnergy CEO Brian Tierney, who also said it could take up to nine years to complete upgrades to Lakewood’s electrical system. In her letter, Mayor George called upon PUCO to mandate additional terms requiring FirstEnergy to develop and implement an interim plan to ensure that Lakewood residents and businesses do not continue suffer from major power outages while long-term upgrades happen.
“Given FirstEnergy’s dismal track record with respect to Lakewood over recent years and CEO Tierney’s public comments, it is now apparent that FirstEnergy should commit to a clear and implementable plan for interim emergency capacity provision to Lakewood until its long-term capital investments are completed,” wrote Mayor George. “This interim plan may include, among other things, the provision of readily available emergency generators placed near Lakewood to pick up the load when inevitable failures occur in the years to come while FirstEnergy implements its promised repairs and upgrades in Lakewood. We know from the past two years that it is highly likely that days-long failures will recur.”
In July, the City of Lakewood petitioned PUCO to resume its probable non-compliance process against FirstEnergy due to the recurrence of multi-day power outages in Lakewood following similar outages in the summer of 2025. Mayor George included a request that financial penalties be imposed, and PUCO responded by issuing a second finding of probable non-compliance which included, among other mandates, an order that FirstEnergy forfeit $3 million.
FirstEnergy responded to PUCO’s noncompliance finding with a commitment to undertake a “Comprehensive Lakewood Reliability Improvement Plan” that requires “retiring, replacing or upgrading facilities” serving Lakewood, but mentioned no plans for interim capacity while implementing that long-term plan. The City of Lakewood’s newest letter to PUCO seeks to address this critical gap and eliminate the risk of preventable future outages.