March 7, 2025

Ten FirstEnergy employees are among the Electric Power Institute’s (EPRI) esteemed award recipients recently announced and honored with 2024 Technology Transfer Awards.

The awards honor leaders and innovators who have applied research and technology to benefit their company, industry or society. Winners demonstrate outstanding application of EPRI research to tackle significant challenges, championing technological advancements within their companies and across the industry. Their efforts are revered for driving progress while delivering meaningful benefits to stakeholders and society.

Three FirstEnergy teams and one individual contributor were honored with Technology Transfer Awards for their contributions to the following projects:

Alarm Management Philosophy Guide and Implementation

David Chaffin, Staff Outage Management Specialist
John Daugherty, Manager, Distribution Control Center Support
Robert Kozak, Manager, Distribution System Operations
Chris Rettger, Manager, Distribution SCADA

FirstEnergy hosted several utilities from across the country, as well as experts from EPRI, to participate in a multi-day collaborative workshop that resulted in the production of an Alarm Management Philosophy Guide.

This team of four employees was recognized for helping formulate this guide and making it available for EPRI members across North America. Many utilities, including FirstEnergy, have since used the guide to develop their alarm management programs.

Alarm management is critical in our control centers as we continue to add advanced Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) equipment to our system. By having well rationalized alarms, we can provide System Operators with the ability to address the most critical needs of the grid and our customers accurately and timely, while eliminating the distraction of unnecessary alarms.

Our company has experienced a positive impact in portions of our system where we have piloted these concepts, and this work is expected to bring benefits across our footprint in the future.

Creation of Minimum Clearance Distances for Vegetation Management

Mark Contat, General Manager, Transmission Vegetation Management
Shawn Standish, Director, Vegetation Management

This employee team, led by Mark and Shawn, was recognized for developing calculation methods to determine minimum clearance distances between vegetation management equipment, such as aerial saws, and transmission lines under different approach scenarios, system parameters, and weather conditions.

Our industry has benefitted from having this calculation methodology and results for common transmission voltage levels available to assist with understanding the minimum separation distances for aerial saw vendors. The team’s findings also created better safety guidelines for helicopter vendors and pilots and facilitated the development of new technical material that can be used for vendor training.

Energy Sector Bat Conservation Solutions

Michele Dellinger, Advanced Forestry Specialist
Joe Lopatka, Advanced Transmission Forestry Specialist
Auggie Ruggiero, Senior Scientist

Hibernating bat populations in North America are currently facing a severe endangerment crisis, due to the rapid and widespread growth of white-nose syndrome (WNS) disease. The disease has been catastrophic, leading to more than a 90% decline of the population in at least three bat species in 40 U.S. states and eight Canadian provinces, resulting in federal protection orders.

This project team, comprised of many employees and led by Michele, Joe and Auggie, was recognized for its implementation of bat conservation solutions that comply with regulations to maintain existing transmission and distribution infrastructure while supporting species impacted by WNS.

These include the Fat Bat Project, designed to help fatten and increase bat populations prior to hibernation, and the New Jersey Artificial Roosting Project, involving the installation of bat roosts along transmission rights-of-way.

Application of EVs2Scale eRoadMAP for EV Planning

Becca Harder, Analyst V, Transformation & Emerging Technologies

EPRI’s eRoadMAP™ is a map designed to estimate the power and energy needs for electrifying transportation vehicles at the local level. The map visualizes the year-over-year grid loads expected on the path to meeting 2030 electrification goals and regulations across all 50 states, as well as the future loads with 100% electrification of on-road transportation.

Planning for this shift to electric transportation is a massive opportunity and undertaking for our industry. It requires an understanding of conventional vehicle behavior and assumptions about the energy needs of an equivalent electric vehicle.

Utilities in EPRI’s EVs2Scale Program, including FirstEnergy, have taken a new set of data and begun incorporating it into their planning practices – allowing utilities to identify and plan for large transportation loads earlier than they would have otherwise.

FirstEnergy’s Becca Harder was recognized by EPRI for her role in helping to advance the application of eRoadMAP technology. Becca facilitated connecting EPRI members with the right FirstEnergy employees to fulfill project needs and provided EPRI with information related to our efforts to support EV charging and prepare for increasing EV demand.