Proposed plan would expand investments in
smart grid technology
AKRON,
Ohio, July 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy
Corp.'s (NYSE: FE) Ohio utilities
– Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company and Toledo
Edison – have filed a plan with the Public Utilities Commission of
Ohio (PUCO) that would expand
investments in smart grid technology, including equipment to help
reduce the frequency and duration of power outages for
customers.
The filing, known as Ohio Grid Mod II, proposes a four-year,
$626 million investment plan that
builds upon system upgrades completed since the PUCO approved the
utilities' Grid Mod I plan in 2019. To date, that program has
resulted in improved outage restoration times for customers in
areas where the smart technology was installed. For example,
thousands of Ohio Edison customers in Trumbull and Mahoning counties in northeast Ohio have seen their average restoration times
improve by nearly half an hour in more complex outage scenarios,
such as equipment damage from severe weather or a vehicle accident.
Improvements have also been realized in the Cleveland Electric
Illuminating Company and Toledo Edison territories.
"The projects we've completed under Grid Mod I have proven to be
successful in reducing many power interruptions. This has laid the
foundation for us to further enhance service reliability across our
entire service area in Ohio," said
Sam Belcher, senior vice president
of FirstEnergy Operations. "While events out of our control, like
severe weather or vehicle accidents, still have the potential to
cause outages, the proposed plan will allow us to enhance our
results from Grid Mod I and expand the work to areas of our service
territory that have not yet benefited from these enhancements."
Key components of Grid Mod II include installing:
- Automated equipment on nearly 240 distribution grid sections
that can automatically isolate problems, minimize the number of
customers impacted by an outage and quickly restore electric
service;
- Voltage regulating equipment on nearly 220 grid sections that
can provide energy savings by reducing the amount of electricity
that must be generated and that allows all customers served by a
single power line to receive the same flow of safe, reliable power
by evenly distributing electricity down the line;
- 700,000 smart meters along with the necessary supporting
communications infrastructure and data management system.
The Grid Mod II smart meter program follows installation to date
of approximately 704,000 smart meters as part of Grid Mod I. As the
latest in metering technology, smart meters enable customers to
better track their energy consumption and eliminate estimated
readings. Through the "My Account" feature on
www.firstenergycorp.com, customers have access to a variety of
tools and information that can help them understand usage and
manage electricity costs. Smart meters also can be leveraged by
customers electing to enroll in programs like time-varying rates,
which can provide price incentives to reduce electricity use during
high demand periods throughout the day.
In addition, Grid Mod II would offer smart thermostat rebates of
$50 per thermostat and customer
energy management reports for residential customers that will
further enable them to manage their energy usage. In the future,
smart meter benefits also will include the ability to detect and
locate outages more quickly and provide more accurate and timely
storm restoration information.
The filing also includes several pilot programs that could
provide enhanced customer benefits, such as:
- Programs designed to support the adoption of electric vehicles
(EV) across the company's Ohio
service territories. Central to these programs is the testing of
higher capacity residential and commercial EV chargers that can
charge vehicles faster, the ability to reduce costs by shifting
charging demand away from peak demand periods and the use of EV
chargers that permit the bidirectional flow of power so that
certain EVs can both draw from and contribute power to the grid.
The residential program will consist of up to 600 EV charging
ports at residential customer homes, and residential customers
electing to participate will receive incentives of up to
$750. Two commercial programs offered
as part of the pilot include incentives of up to $2,000 per EV charging port for up to 300
commercial customer locations, and incentives of up to $20,000 for up to six commercial or
governmental customers with ten or more fully electric vehicles
capable of bidirectional power flow.
- Installing a battery energy storage system designed to support
increased EV charging load along the Ohio Turnpike and enhance grid
reliability.
- Installing automated devices in neighborhoods throughout Ohio
Edison and Toledo Edison's service areas, particularly in areas
prone to animal- or tree-related outages. The devices work like a
circuit breaker in a home that shuts off power when trouble occurs,
with the added benefit of automatically reenergizing power lines
within seconds for certain types of outages to keep power safely
flowing to customers.
"The benefits of Grid Mod II for our Ohio customers through enhanced reliability,
energy efficiency opportunities and innovative products and
services are estimated to exceed the costs of the program by nearly
$280 million in today's dollars,"
said Belcher. "We are excited to enhance the delivery of safe,
reliable power through this investment while also promoting modern
experiences and emerging technologies that can ultimately help
lower energy bills to our customers."
If approved by the PUCO, a typical FirstEnergy Ohio utility
residential customer could expect to see an average monthly charge
of about $2.40 for the length of the
Grid Mod II plan. The proposed plan includes protections for
customers, such as caps on recovery of Grid Mod II costs, annual
PUCO audits, the companies' reporting of metrics and a quarterly
collaborative meeting with stakeholders.
FirstEnergy is dedicated to integrity, 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 approximately 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.
Editor's Note: Photos of FirstEnergy utility crews
completing the grid modernization work under the previously
approved plan are available for download on Flickr. Video
footage/B-Roll of FirstEnergy utility crews completing grid
modernization work can be viewed and downloaded here.
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 and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance
on these forward-looking statements. 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 completion of the Tender Offer; the potential liabilities,
increased costs and unanticipated developments resulting from
government investigations and agreements, including those
associated with compliance with or failure to comply with the
Deferred Prosecution Agreement entered into on July 21, 2021 with the U.S. Attorney's Office for
the Southern District of Ohio; the
risks and uncertainties associated with government investigations
and audits regarding Ohio House Bill 6, as passed by Ohio's 133rd General Assembly (HB 6) and
related matters, including potential adverse impacts on federal or
state regulatory matters, including, but not limited to, matters
relating to rates; the risks and uncertainties associated with
litigation, arbitration, mediation, and similar proceedings,
particularly regarding HB 6 related matters, including risks
associated with obtaining court approval of the definitive
settlement agreement in the derivative shareholder lawsuits;
weather conditions, such as temperature variations and severe
weather conditions, or other natural disasters affecting future
operating results and associated regulatory actions or outcomes in
response to such conditions; legislative and regulatory
developments, including, but not limited to, matters related to
rates, compliance and enforcement activity, cybersecurity, and
climate change; the ability to accomplish or realize anticipated
benefits from our FE Forward initiative and our other strategic and
financial goals, including, but not limited to, overcoming current
uncertainties and challenges associated with the ongoing government
investigations, executing our transmission and distribution
investment plans, greenhouse gas reduction goals, controlling
costs, improving our credit metrics, growing earnings, and
strengthening our balance sheet; the risks associated with
cyber-attacks and other disruptions to our, or our vendors',
information technology system, which may compromise our operations,
and data security breaches of sensitive data, intellectual property
and proprietary or personally identifiable information; mitigating
exposure for remedial activities associated with retired and
formerly owned electric generation assets; 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
FirstEnergy, including the increasing number of financial
institutions evaluating the impact of climate change on their
investment decisions; the extent and duration of the COVID-19
pandemic and the related impacts to our business, operations and
financial condition resulting from the outbreak of COVID-19
including, but not limited to, disruption of businesses in our
territories, supply chain disruptions, additional costs, workforce
impacts and governmental and regulatory responses to the pandemic,
such as moratoriums on utility disconnections and workforce
vaccination mandates; actions that may be taken by credit rating
agencies that could negatively affect either our access to or terms
of financing or our financial condition and liquidity; changes in
assumptions regarding factors such as economic conditions within
our territories, the reliability of our transmission and
distribution system, or the availability of capital or other
resources supporting identified transmission and distribution
investment opportunities; changes in customers' demand for power,
including, but not limited to, economic conditions, the impact of
climate change, or energy efficiency and peak demand reduction
mandates; changes in national and regional economic conditions,
including recession and inflationary pressure, affecting
FirstEnergy and/or its customers and those vendors with which
FirstEnergy does business; the potential of non-compliance with
debt covenants in our credit facilities; the ability to comply with
applicable reliability standards and energy efficiency and peak
demand reduction mandates; changes to environmental laws and
regulations, including, but not limited to, those related to
climate change; changing market conditions affecting the
measurement of certain liabilities and the value of assets held in
our pension trusts, or causing FirstEnergy to make contributions
sooner, or in amounts that are larger, than currently anticipated;
labor disruptions by our unionized workforce; changes to
significant accounting policies; any changes in tax laws or
regulations, or adverse tax audit results or rulings; and the risks
and other factors discussed from time to time in our Securities and
Exchange Commission filings. These forward-looking statements
are also qualified by, and should be read together with, the risk
factors included in FirstEnergy's filings with the SEC, including,
but not limited to, the most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and
any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports
on Form 8-K. The foregoing review of factors also 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
obligation to update or revise, except as required by law, any
forward-looking statements contained herein or in the information
incorporated by reference as a result of new information, future
events or otherwise.
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SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.