Comprehensive Agreement Designed to Keep
Costs Manageable for Customers
READING, Pa., Sept. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy
Pennsylvania Electric Company (FE
PA), a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) doing
business as Met-Ed, Penn Power, Penelec and West Penn Power, has
reached a settlement in its base rate review, subject to the
approval of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PaPUC). The
$225 million settlement expands bill
assistance for low-income residential customers and enables the
company's electric grid investments that support safe and reliable
electric service for its Pennsylvania customers.
The settlement balances the interests of all parties to the
settlement, who include the Office of the Consumer Advocate, the
Office of the Small Business Advocate, the Pennsylvania Public
Utility Commission's Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement, the
Coalition for Affordable Utility Services and Energy Efficiency in
Pennsylvania, the Met-Ed
Industrial Users Group, Penelec Industrial Customer Alliance, the
West Penn Power Industrial Intervenors, the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 459, the Local Union 777 of
the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, the
UWUA System Local 102, Walmart, Inc. and the Pennsylvania State University.
John Hawkins, FirstEnergy's
President of Pennsylvania:
"This settlement will amplify our efforts to connect our
lower-income customers with a wide variety of bill assistance
programs while also making meaningful upgrades to our electric
system to enhance reliability for customers. We appreciate the
broad set of stakeholders who participated in open and transparent
settlement discussions that resulted in an agreement that balances
all interests in our rates proceeding."
The settlement includes investments focused on strengthening the
energy grid, enhancing the customer experience and managing bill
costs. They include:
- Increasing vegetation management investments to enhance tree
trimming and other related work around company power lines to
enhance electric service reliability.
- Supporting investments in the electric grid through the
Long-Term Infrastructure Improvement Plan III (LTIIP III) to
enhance the reliability of power lines and substations.
- Identifying opportunities to selectively place distribution
facilities underground to help enhance electric service
reliability.
- Allowing the company to continue recovering expenses incurred
when restoring electricity to customers following storms and severe
weather.
- Increasing annual funding for Hardship Fund grants by
$2 million above current levels for a
three-year period starting in 2025 and increasing the maximum
Hardship Fund grant to $600 to assist
eligible customers whose electric service has been or is at risk of
termination.
- Implementing a process to use income data from the Pennsylvania
Department of Human Services to improve enrollment and retention in
FirstEnergy's income-eligible Pennsylvania Customer Assistance
Program (PCAP).
- Hiring an incremental 10% to field workforce above the prior
year's attrition for five years or until the next base rate review,
whichever comes first.
If approved by the PaPUC, the settlement agreement would result
in the following increases for residential customers using 1,000
kilowatt-hours per month:
- Met-Ed – average increase of 1.9% or $3.49 for a new monthly bill of $191.19.
- Penelec – average increase of 4.1% or $8.33 for a new monthly bill of $209.29.
- Penn Power – average increase of 4.5% or $8.13 for a new monthly bill of $188.72.
- West Penn – average increase of 6.2% or $9.70 for a new monthly bill of $166.07.
The average monthly bill for FE
PA customers would be in line with the statewide average for
typical customers served by the other three major electric
companies in Pennsylvania. Pending
PaPUC approval, FE PA is requesting
a Jan. 1, 2025, effective date for
the new rates.
Rising energy costs may cause concern for customers. Met-Ed,
Penelec, Penn Power and West Penn Power continue efforts to keep
costs manageable for customers. To help customers manage their
bills, average payment plans, special payment plans and access to
energy assistance programs are offered. For more information,
please visit firstenergycorp.com/billassist. To learn more about
energy efficiency products and programs to help save money,
visit energysavepa.com.
Investor Note: For additional information on the
filing, visit the IR - Regulatory Corner in the "Investor
Materials" section of the FirstEnergy website at
investors.firstenergycorp.com.
Met-Ed serves approximately 592,000 customers within 3,300
square miles of eastern and southeastern Pennsylvania. Follow Met-Ed on X, formerly
known as Twitter, @Met Ed and on Facebook at
facebook.com/MetEdElectric.
Penelec serves approximately 597,000 customers within 17,600
square miles of northern and central Pennsylvania and western New York. Follow Penelec on X
@Penelec and on Facebook at facebook.com/PenelecElectric.
Penn Power serves approximately 173,000 customers in all or
parts of Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Lawrence and Mercer counties in western Pennsylvania. Follow Penn Power on X
@Penn_Power, on Facebook at facebook.com/PennPower, and online at
pennpower.com.
West Penn Power serves approximately 746,000 customers in 24
counties within central and southwestern Pennsylvania. Follow West Penn on X
@W_Penn_Power and on Facebook at
facebook.com/WestPennPower.
FirstEnergy is dedicated to integrity, safety, reliability and
operational excellence. Its 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 online at firstenergycorp.com and
on X @FirstEnergyCorp.
Forward-Looking Statements: This release includes
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 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 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 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 dismissal of the derivative shareholder lawsuits; changes
in national and regional economic conditions, including recession,
volatile interest rates, inflationary pressure, supply chain
disruptions, higher fuel costs, and workforce impacts, affecting us
and/or our customers and those vendors with which we do business;
variations in weather, such as mild seasonal weather variations and
severe weather conditions (including events caused, or exacerbated,
by climate change, such as wildfires, hurricanes, flooding,
droughts, high wind events and extreme heat events) and 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, energy regulatory policies,
compliance and enforcement activity, cyber security, and climate
change; the risks associated with physical attacks, such as acts of
war, terrorism, sabotage or other acts of violence, and
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; the ability
to meet our goals relating to employee, environmental, social and
corporate governance opportunities, improvements, and efficiencies,
including our greenhouse gas ("GHG") reduction goals; the ability
to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits through establishing
a culture of continuous improvement and our other strategic and
financial goals, including, but not limited to, overcoming current
uncertainties and challenges associated with the ongoing government
investigations, executing Energize365, our transmission and
distribution investment plan, executing on our rate filing
strategy, controlling costs, improving credit metrics, maintaining
investment grade ratings, and growing earnings; changing market
conditions affecting the measurement of certain liabilities and the
value of assets held in our pension trusts may negatively impact
our forecasted growth rate, results of operations, and may also
cause us to make contributions to our pension sooner or in amounts
that are larger than currently anticipated; mitigating exposure for
remedial activities associated with retired and formerly owned
electric generation assets, including those sites impacted by the
recently promulgated legacy coal combustion residual rules; changes
to environmental laws and regulations, including, but not limited
to, rules recently finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency
and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) related to
climate change; changes in customers' demand for power, including,
but not limited to, economic conditions, the impact of climate
change, emerging technology, particularly with respect to
electrification, energy storage and distributed sources of
generation; 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, including the increasing number of
financial institutions evaluating the impact of climate change on
their investment decisions; future actions 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, generation resource planning, or the
availability of capital or other resources supporting identified
transmission and distribution investment opportunities; 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;
human capital management challenges, including among other things,
attracting and retaining appropriately trained and qualified
employees and labor disruptions by our unionized workforce; changes
to significant accounting policies; any changes in tax laws or
regulations, including, but not limited to, the Inflation Reduction
Act of 2022, or adverse tax audit results or rulings; and the risks
and other factors discussed from time to time in our SEC filings.
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. These forward-looking statements
are also qualified by, and should be read together with, the risk
factors included in FirstEnergy Corp.'s Annual Report on Form 10-K
for the year ended December 31, 2023,
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for
the quarter and other filings with the SEC. 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 Corp.'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
Corp. 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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