FirstEnergy Corp. (FE - Analyst Report) announced that it has invested $388 million through two of its business wings, Pennsylvania Electric Company (Penelec) and West Penn Power, in 2014.

This included $181 million invested in West Penn Power and $207 million in its Penelec utility for reliability programs in their respective service areas.

Of the total capital outlay for the strengthening of infrastructure, $114 million was spent on transmission projects owned by FirstEnergy’s transmission company, Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Company (TrAILCo).

Infrastructure upgrades included expansion of transmission lines, installation of new transmission substations, replacement of distribution poles and circuits, installation of remote control and voltage regulating equipment to stabilize voltage levels and trimming trees along power lines for proper clearance.

Large-scale reliability and enhancement investments such as these are certainly yielding more robust electric service to FirstEnergy’s customers. In 2014, West Penn Power customers witnessed a reduction of 16% in the frequency of outages compared with the prior year.

As far as Penelec users are concerned, there was a 14% cutback in the average restoration time of a power outage in 2014 from 2012 levels.

Apart from benefiting from enhanced electric systems, FirstEnergy’s customers also received additional assistance from Power Center outage maps developed by the company. From this technology, FirstEnergy users have access to extensive details about power outage restoration.

The reliability programs undertaken by FirstEnergy speak of the company’s efforts to render committed utility services to its customers.

Zacks Rank

FirstEnergy currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Stocks with a better rank in the electric utility space include TerraForm Power, Inc. (TERP - Snapshot Report), Enersis S.A. (ENI - Snapshot Report) and Huaneng Power International, Inc. (HNP -Snapshot Report). All three stocks currently sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).