GREENSBURG, Pa., Jan. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy Corp.
(NYSE: FE) announced today the Pennsylvania Public Utility
Commission (PPUC) has approved the company's base rate case
settlements that will help support and build on the significant
service reliability enhancements made in recent years to benefit
more than two million customers in the state.
FirstEnergy's Pennsylvania
utilities include Metropolitan Edison Company (Met-Ed),
Pennsylvania Electric Company (Penelec), Pennsylvania Power Company
(Penn Power), and West Penn Power Company (West Penn Power).
The approved rate plans for each utility are expected to benefit
customers by continuing infrastructure projects, including circuit
and substation upgrades and pole replacements, along with
additional vegetation management and equipment replacements.
The rate plans also include continued assistance for
providing service to low-income customers, about $95.3 million annually.
With today's action, the PPUC approved an Administrative Law
Judge's previous recommended decision regarding settlement
agreements between FirstEnergy's Pennsylvania utilities and the Office of
Consumer Advocate, the Office of Small Business Advocate, the
Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement, the West Penn Power
Industrial Intervenors, the Penelec Industrial Customer Alliance,
the Met-Ed Industrial Users Group, The Pennsylvania State University, the Coalition for
Affordable Utility Services and Energy Efficiency in Pennsylvania, Wal-Mart Stores East, LP and
Sam's East, Inc., North America Hoganas Holdings, Inc., and AK
Steel Corporation.
"FirstEnergy is focused on providing dependable electricity to
our customers for their homes, businesses and communities, and
today's PPUC approval will help us deliver on this commitment,"
said Linda Moss, FirstEnergy
president of Pennsylvania Operations. "Today's action by the
PPUC will provide us the resources and technology necessary to
continue to enhance our infrastructure and provide safe and
reliable electric service for our customers."
The new rates will result in the following increases for
residential customers using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month:
- Met-Ed customers will see an average increase of 10.7 percent,
or $13.91, for a total bill of
$143.73. Overall, Met-Ed will receive
an increase of $96 million.
- Penelec customers will see an average increase of 12.8 percent,
or $17.62, for a total bill of
$155.51. In total, Penelec will
receive an increase of $100.4
million.
- Penn Power customers will see an average increase of 10.4
percent, or $13.51, for a total bill
of $143.57. Penn Power will receive
an increase of $29.2 million as a
result of the settlement.
- West Penn Power customers will see an average increase of 7.2
percent, or $8.09, for a total bill
of $121.08. Overall, West Penn Power
will receive an increase of $65.6
million.
The new rates for all of FirstEnergy's Pennsylvania utilities will be effective
January 27, 2017.
Met-Ed serves about 560,000 customers within 3,300 square miles
of eastern and southeastern Pennsylvania. Follow Met-Ed on
Twitter @Met Ed and on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/MetEdElectric. Penelec serves nearly 600,000
customers within 17,600 square miles of northern and central
Pennsylvania. Follow Penelec on Twitter @Penelec and on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/PenelecElectric. Penn Power
serves approximately 163,000 customers within 1,100 square miles of
western Pennsylvania. Follow Penn Power on Twitter @Penn
Power, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PennPower. West
Penn Power serves approximately 720,000 customers within 10,400
square miles of central and southwestern Pennsylvania. Follow
West Penn Power on Twitter @W_Penn_Power and on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/WestPennPower.
FirstEnergy is dedicated to safety, reliability and operational
excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one
of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving
customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, West Virginia,
Maryland and New York. The
company's transmission subsidiaries operate more than 24,000 miles
of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic
regions. Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp or
online at www.firstenergycorp.com.
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," "forecast," "target," "will,"
"intend," "believe," "project," "estimate," "plan" 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, which may
include the following: the speed and nature of increased
competition in the electric utility industry, in general, and the
retail sales market in particular; the ability to experience growth
in the Regulated Distribution and Regulated Transmission segments;
the accomplishment of our regulatory and operational goals in
connection with our transmission investment plan, including, but
not limited to, the proposed transmission asset transfer to
Mid-Atlantic Interstate Transmission, LLC, and the effectiveness of
our strategy to reflect a more regulated business profile; changes
in assumptions regarding economic conditions within our
territories, assessment of the reliability of our transmission
system, or the availability of capital or other resources
supporting identified transmission investment opportunities; the
impact of the regulatory process and resulting outcomes on the
matters at the federal level and in the various states in which we
do business including, but not limited to, matters related to rates
and the Electric Security Plan IV; the impact of the federal
regulatory process on Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC)-regulated entities and transactions, in particular FERC
regulation of wholesale energy and capacity markets, including PJM
Interconnection, L.L.C. (PJM) markets and FERC-jurisdictional
wholesale transactions; FERC regulation of cost-of-service rates,
including FERC Opinion No. 531's revised Return on Equity
methodology for FERC-jurisdictional wholesale generation and
transmission utility service; and FERC's compliance and enforcement
activity, including compliance and enforcement activity related to
North American Electric Reliability Corporation's mandatory
reliability standards; the uncertainties of various cost recovery
and cost allocation issues resulting from American Transmission
Systems, Incorporated's realignment into PJM; economic or weather
conditions affecting future sales and margins such as a polar
vortex or other significant weather events, and all associated
regulatory events or actions; changing energy, capacity and
commodity market prices including, but not limited to, coal,
natural gas and oil prices, and their availability and impact on
margins and asset valuations, including without limitation
impairments thereon; the risks and uncertainties at the Competitive
Energy Services (CES) segment, including FirstEnergy Solutions
Corp. and its subsidiaries and FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating
Company, related to continued depressed wholesale energy and
capacity markets, and the viability and/or success of strategic
business alternatives, such as potential CES generating unit asset
sales, the potential conversion of the remaining generation fleet
from competitive operations to a regulated or regulated-like
construct or the potential need to deactivate additional generating
units; the risks and uncertainties associated with a lack of viable
alternative strategies regarding the CES segment, thereby causing
FES to seek protection under the bankruptcy laws and the losses,
liabilities and claims arising from such bankruptcy proceeding; the
continued ability of our regulated utilities to recover their
costs; costs being higher than anticipated and the success of our
policies to control costs and to mitigate low energy, capacity and
market prices; other legislative and regulatory changes, and
revised environmental requirements, including, but not limited to,
the effects of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's
Clean Power Plan, Coal Combustion Residuals regulations,
Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and Mercury and Air Toxics Standards
programs, including our estimated costs of compliance, Clean Water
Act (CWA) waste water effluent limitations for power plants, and
CWA 316(b) water intake regulation; the uncertainty of the timing
and amounts of the capital expenditures that may arise in
connection with any litigation, including New Source Review
litigation, or potential regulatory initiatives or rulemakings
(including that such initiatives or rulemakings could result in our
decision to deactivate or idle certain generating units); the
uncertainties associated with the deactivation of older regulated
and competitive units, including the impact on vendor commitments,
such as long-term fuel and transportation agreements, and as it
relates to the reliability of the transmission grid, the timing
thereof; the impact of other future changes to the operational
status or availability of our generating units and any capacity
performance charges associated with unit unavailability; adverse
regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes with respect to our
nuclear operations (including, but not limited to, the revocation
or non-renewal of necessary licenses, approvals or operating
permits by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or as a result of the
incident at Japan's Fukushima
Daiichi Nuclear Plant); issues arising from the indications of
cracking in the shield building at Davis-Besse; the risks and
uncertainties associated with litigation, arbitration, mediation
and like proceedings, including, but not limited to, any such
proceedings related to vendor commitments, such as long-term fuel
and transportation agreements; the impact of labor disruptions by
our unionized workforce; replacement power costs being higher than
anticipated or not fully hedged; the ability to comply with
applicable state and federal reliability standards and energy
efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates; changes in
customers' demand for power, including, but not limited to, changes
resulting from the implementation of state and federal energy
efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates; the ability to
accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic and
financial goals, including, but not limited to, the ability to
continue to reduce costs and to successfully execute our financial
plans designed to improve our credit metrics and strengthen our
balance sheet through, among other actions, our cash flow
improvement plan and other proposed capital raising initiatives;
our ability to improve electric commodity margins and the impact
of, among other factors, the increased cost of fuel and fuel
transportation on such margins; changing market conditions that
could affect the measurement of certain liabilities and the value
of assets held in our Nuclear Decommissioning Trusts, pension
trusts and other trust funds, and cause us and/or our subsidiaries
to make additional contributions sooner, or in amounts that are
larger than currently anticipated; the impact of changes to
significant accounting policies; the ability to access the public
securities and other capital and credit markets in accordance with
our financial plans, the cost of such capital and overall condition
of the capital and credit markets affecting us and our
subsidiaries; further actions that may be taken by credit rating
agencies that could negatively affect us and/or our subsidiaries'
access to financing, increase the costs thereof, increase
requirements to post additional collateral to support, or
accelerate payments under outstanding commodity positions, letters
of credit and other financial guarantees, and the impact of these
events on the financial condition and liquidity of FirstEnergy
and/or its subsidiaries, specifically the subsidiaries within the
CES segment; the risks and uncertainties surrounding FirstEnergy's
need to obtain waivers from its bank group under FirstEnergy's
credit facilities caused by a debt to total capitalization ratio,
as defined under each of such credit facilities, in excess of 65%
resulting from impairment charges or other events at CES; changes
in national and regional economic conditions affecting us, our
subsidiaries and/or our major industrial and commercial customers,
and other counterparties with which we do business, including fuel
suppliers; the impact of any changes in tax laws or regulations or
adverse tax audit results or rulings; issues concerning the
stability of domestic and foreign financial institutions and
counterparties with which we do business; the risks associated with
cyber-attacks and other disruptions to our information technology
system that may compromise our generation, transmission and/or
distribution services and data security breaches of sensitive data,
intellectual property and proprietary or personally identifiable
information regarding our business, employees, shareholders,
customers, suppliers, business partners and other individuals in
our data centers and on our networks; and the risks and other
factors discussed from time to time in our United States Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, and other similar factors.
Dividends declared from time to time on FirstEnergy Corp.'s common
stock during any period may in the aggregate vary from prior
periods due to circumstances considered by FirstEnergy Corp.'s
Board of Directors at the time of the actual declarations. A
security rating is not a recommendation to buy or hold securities
and is subject to revision or withdrawal at any time by the
assigning rating agency. Each rating should be evaluated
independently of any other rating. The foregoing factors should not
be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with
the other cautionary statements and risks that are included in our
filings with the SEC, including but not limited to the most recent
Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Quarterly Reports on
Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. 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 our
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, except as required by
law, any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of
new information, future events or otherwise.
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SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.