| Type | Public (NYSE: FE) S&P 500 Component |
|---|---|
| Industry | Electric Utility |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | Akron, Ohio, U.S. |
| Area served | 4.5 million customers within 36,100 square miles (93,000 km2) of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey (count prior to 2011) |
| Key people | Anthony J. Alexander, president and chief executive officer |
| Products | Electricity generation, transmission and distribution, energy management, other energy-related services |
| Revenue | $18 billion (2010) |
| Total assets | US$48 billion (2010) |
| Employees | 17,000 (2010) |
| Website | www.firstenergycorp.com |
FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE), is a diversified energy company headquartered in Akron, Ohio. Its subsidiaries and affiliates are involved in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity, as well as energy management and other energy-related services. Its ten electric utility operating companies comprise the nation’s largest investor-owned electric system, based on serving 6 million customers within a 67,000-square-mile (170,000 km2) area of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey. Its generation subsidiaries control more than 23,000 megawatts of capacity, and its distribution lines span over 194,000 miles. In 2007, FirstEnergy ranked 212 on the Fortune 500 list of the largest public corporations in America.
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FirstEnergy was formed in 1997, when Ohio Edison Company and its subsidiary, Pennsylvania Power Company merged with Centerior Energy Corp. and its subsidiaries, The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company and The Toledo Edison Company. In 2001, FirstEnergy merged with GPU, Inc., the owner of Jersey Central Power & Light Company, Pennsylvania Electric Company (Penelec), and Metropolitan Edison Company (Met-Ed).
Ohio Edison Company (formerly NYSE: OEC)[1] was a publicly-traded holding company that began in 1930, from the consolidation of 200 electric companies. By 1950, it ended up with two utility operating companies. Ohio Edison Company continued in existence until 1997 when its merger with Centerior formed FirstEnergy:
Centerior Energy Corporation (formerly NYSE: CX) was formed in 1986 from the merger of two old operating companies. Centerior was based in Independence, Ohio and existed as a publicly-traded holding company for only ten years, until its merger with Ohio Edison formed FirstEnergy in 1997:
General Public Utilities (formerly NYSE: GPU) was a publicly-traded utility holding company in Morristown, New Jersey. In 1996, the company was reorganized and renamed GPU, Inc. In 1996, it formed a new division as well, GPU Energy, which became the holding company for its three utility operating companies:
In 2001, FirstEnergy Corporation, with its four utility operating companies, merged with GPU, Inc., bringing GPU's three additional operating companies into FirstEnergy as well.
Through the 2001 acquisition of GPU, FirstEnergy also acquired:
In 1989, Standley H. Hoch left the General Dynamics Corporation in St. Louis and became the CEO of General Public Utilities, a large Parsippany-based utility, perhaps best known as the previous owner of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. Mr. Hoch had two mandates: trim management and lower costs, and fight to repeal the Public Utilities Holding Company Act of 1935, which makes it difficult for utilities to operate across state lines.
In 1990, GPU paid about $600,000 to Fleishman-Hillard, GPU's only outside public relations agency, largely to supplement the company's lobbying effort.
Allegheny Energy is an electric utility serving customers in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland. Its regulated subsidiaries are West Penn Power (serving Pennsylvania), Monongahela Power (northern West Virginia), and The Potomac Edison Company (western Maryland, parts of eastern West Virginia, and northern Virginia). The electric generating plants are operated by subsidiary Allegheny Energy Supply Company and Monongahela Power.
In February 2010, Allegheny Energy announced plans to merge with FirstEnergy. The merger has been approved by stockholders of both companies, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and regulatory commissions in Virginia and West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The merger was finalized when the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission approved the merger on February 24, 2011; the merger closed on February 25, 2011.[4] The merger does not include Allegheny's service area in Virginia, which was purchased in 2010 by the Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative and the Rappahannock Electric Cooperative.
FirstEnergy's electric generation is primarily from coal and nuclear power plants. The system also includes natural gas, oil, and hydroelectric power plants. FirstEnergy operates the Beaver Valley, Davis-Besse, and Perry nuclear power plants.
A study conducted by the University of Massachusetts recognized the relatively low pollution profile of FirstEnergy. Although FirstEnergy placed 58 out of 100 of the country's largest polluters, the company performed better than its regional competitors, including American Electric Power, which ranked number 35.[5]
FirstEnergy is required to pay $1.5 billion by 2011 as part of a settlement to end a lawsuit that the United States Environmental Protection Agency has filed. This lawsuit alleged that the company failed to install pollution control equipment when upgrading its coal burning plants. Also as part of the settlement, major pollution control equipment is now being installed at the FirstEnergy Sammis site and others. This lawsuit was one of the New Source Review lawsuits filed in the 1990s.[6]
To provide cleaner energy to its customers, FirstEnergy took several important steps in 2009. First, the company announced plans in April to repower units 4 and 5 at its R.E. Burger Plant in Shadyside, Ohio, to generate electricity principally with biomass, the only base load renewable source that can displace coal electrons.[7] Furthermore, FirstEnergy is hosting a 1MWe pilot plant test of carbon capture retrofit equipment on one of the remaining coal units at the R.E. Burger Plant.[8] In September, FirstEnergy decided to complete construction on the Fremont Energy Center, a 707-MW natural-gas-fired peaking plant by the end of 2010.[9] And finally in November, FirstEnergy purchased the rights to develop a compressed-air electric generating plant in Norton, Ohio, which Ohio Governor Ted Strickland praised as "an example of how we can leverage technology and our natural resources to grow our economy and ensure our energy future." The Norton project, part of the company’s overall climate change strategy, has the potential to be expanded to up to 2,700 MW of capacity—the largest in the world by far. According to the Electric Power Research Institute, "a compressed-air energy storage project of this size...could be a key component in integrating large-scale intermittent renewables (such as wind) onto the nation's grid system." [10] Together, these projects, when completed, will further reduce the utility’s emissions of CO2, which already is about one-third below the regional average.
FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. has also given renewable energy certificates to help balance out the amount of electricity used in Earth Day events that were held at nine post-secondary education locations in Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Each of the schools received five SmartWind REC’s, enough energy to light a large building for the entire day.[11]
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