Cleveland PR Newswire

Press releases from Ohio companies

FirstEnergy Solutions To Provide 22 Ohio Communities With $7.4 Million in Grants, Long-Term Electric Generation Savings

  Communities with governmental aggregation issues on November ballot also
                                  eligible



    AKRON, Ohio, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- FirstEnergy Solutions
(FES), a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE), has signed agreements
with 22 area communities that will provide $7.4 million in community grants
through its innovative Powering Our Communities program that was announced
in September. In addition, the program will provide residents and small
businesses of those communities with guaranteed long-term electric
generation savings.

    "We are pleased that these communities have partnered with FES for
savings and community funding. Many other eligible communities have
responded favorably to our offer and are in the process of evaluating the
proposal," says Arthur Yuan, vice president of Sales and Marketing at FES.

    The Powering Our Communities program was made available to 50
communities in the Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating and Toledo
Edison service areas that agree to purchase discounted electric generation
supply from FES through governmental aggregation programs. Communities with
governmental aggregation issues on the November ballot are also eligible,
as well as communities where residents have already approved electric
aggregation.

    The community grants available through Powering Our Communities are
designed to help local communities during this difficult recession. The
funding can be used by city and township officials to help pay for, among
other things, city services that have been affected by budget cuts.
Powering Our Communities also locks in long-term discounted generation
prices to residential and small commercial customers in these communities.

    The discounts will be based on the Price to Compare, or the generation
price customers would have been charged if they purchased electric
generation service from their local electric utility. Eligible residential
customers will receive 6 percent off the Price to Compare and small
businesses will get up to a 4 percent discount for an additional six years.
The majority of the communities already had governmental aggregation
programs with FES as the electric generation supplier until 2012.

    The level of funding to each community will be based on the number of
customers who participate in the governmental aggregation program. FES
currently serves more than 600,000 Ohio customers through governmental
aggregation.

    Communities are able to form governmental aggregation buying groups to
arrange for electricity, natural gas, or both on behalf of their citizens.
The government aggregator chooses a supplier for all of the members in its
group. Customers may opt out of the aggregation program and shop for a
supplier or accept the standard rate offered by their local utility.

    FES provides competitive electric generation supply and other
energy-related products and services, and is a licensed supplier in Ohio,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan and Illinois. To learn more
about FirstEnergy Solutions' governmental aggregation programs and
specifically Powering Our Communities, community officials can call
FirstEnergy Solutions' Governmental Aggregation Program Manager Brenda
Fargo at (330) 315-6898 or visit http://www.fes.com.

    FirstEnergy 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 generation subsidiaries control more
than 14,000 megawatts of capacity.

    Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking
statements based on information currently available to management. Such
statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. These statements
include declarations regarding management's intents, beliefs and current
expectations. These statements typically contain, but are not limited to,
the terms "anticipate," "potential," "expect," "believe," "estimate" and
similar words. Forward-looking statements involve estimates, assumptions,
known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause
actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from
any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by
such forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially due
to the speed and nature of increased competition in the electric utility
industry and legislative and regulatory changes affecting how generation
rates will be determined following the expiration of existing rate plans in
Pennsylvania, the impact of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio's
regulatory process on the Ohio Companies associated with the distribution
rate case, economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and
margins, changes in markets for energy services, changing energy and
commodity market prices and availability, replacement power costs being
higher than anticipated or inadequately hedged, the continued ability of
FirstEnergy's regulated utilities to collect transition and other charges
or to recover increased transmission costs, maintenance costs being higher
than anticipated, other legislative and regulatory changes, revised
environmental requirements, including possible greenhouse gas emission
regulations, the potential impacts of the U.S. Court of Appeals' July 11,
2008 decision requiring revisions to the Clean Air Interstate Rules and the
scope of any laws, rules or regulations that may ultimately take their
place, the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of the capital
expenditures needed to, among other things, implement the Air Quality
Compliance Plan (including that such amounts could be higher than
anticipated or that certain generating units may need to be shut down) or
levels of emission reductions related to the Consent Decree resolving the
New Source Review litigation or other similar potential regulatory
initiatives or actions, adverse regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes
(including, but not limited to, the revocation of necessary licenses or
operating permits and oversight) by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Metropolitan Edison Company's and Pennsylvania Electric Company's
transmission service charge filings with the Pennsylvania Public Utility
Commission, the continuing availability of generating units and their
ability to operate at or near full capacity, the ability to comply with
applicable state and federal reliability standards, the ability to
accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic goals (including
employee workforce initiatives), the ability to improve electric commodity
margins and to experience growth in the distribution business, the changing
market conditions that could affect the value of assets held in
FirstEnergy's nuclear decommissioning trusts, pension trusts and other
trust funds, and cause it to make additional contributions sooner, or in an
amount that is larger than currently anticipated, the ability to access the
public securities and other capital and credit markets in accordance with
FirstEnergy's financing plan and the cost of such capital, changes in
general economic conditions affecting the company, the state of the capital
and credit markets affecting the company, interest rates and any actions
taken by credit rating agencies that could negatively affect FirstEnergy's
access to financing or its costs or increase its requirements to post
additional collateral to support outstanding commodity positions, letters
of credit and other financial guarantees, the continuing decline of the
national and regional economy and its impact on the company's major
industrial and commercial customers, issues concerning the soundness of
financial institutions and counterparties with which FirstEnergy does
business, and the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in
its Securities and Exchange Commission filings, and other similar factors.
The foregoing review of factors should not be construed as exhaustive. New
factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to
predict all such factors, nor assess the impact of any such factor on
FirstEnergy's business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of
factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any
forward-looking statements. FirstEnergy expressly disclaims any current
intention to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a
result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

    http://www.firstenergycorp.com