COLUMBUS, Ohio — If your power goes out, FirstEnergy wants permission to take longer to fix it.
The company is asking state regulators for permission to let Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co., Ohio Edison and Toledo Edison extend the time it takes to restore service after an outage.
Ohio Edison and Toledo Edison are also asking to increase the number of permissible outages per year.
“While the Companies have historically had strong reliability performance, they have faced challenges in meeting their reliability standards in recent years,“ according to FirstEnergy. ”In general, the Companies’ reliability performance has worsened since 2019.”
But cities like Cleveland, Barberton and Lakewood are urging the state to reject FirstEnergy’s request.
“This outcome would increase the harms that Cleveland residents suffer from blackouts, including the inability to power critical health equipment, such as electric wheelchairs and oxygen; missing work and school; exposure to extreme heat and cold; and the spoilage and loss of food,” the city of Cleveland said in formal public comments.
The decision rests with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, which regulates essential services such as electricity, natural gas, and water.
After months of filings, the case is moving into the hearing stage. The first evidentiary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 21.
What does FirstEnergy want?
State regulators judge power reliability using two main measures.
One is how long the average power outage lasts. The other tracks how many times the average customer loses power in a year.
CEI failed to meet its average outage standards for two years and now wants more flexibility.
The company asked to increase its average wait for reconnection from 135 minutes to 150 minutes. Ohio Edison requested about three extra minutes per outage, while Toledo Edison sought 12 more minutes.
“The proposed standards are derived from the companies’ historic performance and sound statistical analysis and are therefore just and reasonable,” according to FirstEnergy.
But consumer advocates warned this isn’t as simple as adding a few more minutes onto the next blackout you experience.
Ohio Consumers’ Counsel spokesman Jon Blackwood said the change applies to the average, not to any one outage.
“One extra day of power being out might translate to a few extra minutes in those reliability standards,” he said.
Outage impacts
Lakewood warned state regulators in a December filing that repeated power failures “have created serious public-safety risks.”
The city reported more than 60 outages lasting longer than five hours from September 2024 to September 2025.
“Over half of these major outages were caused by First Energy’s equipment or line failure or company errors by its own admission,” according to the city.
During one extended outage in June, Lakewood offered grocery vouchers to low-income residents who lost their refrigerated food, and more than 400 households applied.
Lakewood wrote that elderly and disabled residents have been trapped in high-rise elevators for long periods, while people who rely on powered medical equipment have faced “dangerous interruptions.”
Lakewood and the Ohio Consumers Council have asked the PUCO for an independent investigation into these outages.
The city of Barberton also has a similiar claim before the PUCO.
Why are outages increasing?
FirstEnergy says one of the biggest challenges is trees that fall outside of the company’s trimming zones — for example, an old oak growing 30 feet away from the trimming zone that topples over during a storm.
“Since 2000, the companies have experienced significant increases in rainfall,” according to the filing. “Wetter ground conditions increase the likelihood of trees, including healthy trees, uprooting and falling over.”
Both Lakewood and Cleveland disputed that explanation.
Lakewood wrote in its December filing that 33 of its power outages came from “line failures, equipment failures, or human error by the company.” Another 12 were due to trees the company maintains.
Cleveland expressed a simlar response.
“In other words,” Cleveland wrote, “nearly two-thirds of these outages, many of which also affected Cleveland residents, occurred due to circumstances entirely within FirstEnergy’s control.”
Another major cause of outages is aging lines and equipment.
FirstEnergy says its grid upgrades are starting to help, but the “benefits have been insufficient to overcome that worsening on a system-wide basis.”
Critics argue that customers have already given FirstEnergy more than $1 billion for reliability improvements since 2017.
“Nevertheless,” Cleveland wrote, “FirstEnergy is now telling the PUCO that these investments have not yet produced real-world impacts, and it is requesting that the Commission weaken its reliability standards in response. Cleveland residents should not be forced to pay more for less reliable service.”
There are also questions about where upgrades are happening.
The Ohio Environmental Council released a report in March saying grid conditions are worse in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Its analysis found that, in communities like Cleveland, grid equipment is several years older, lower-voltage lines are used twice as often, and circuits have less capacity to handle heavy demand.
