January 23, 2020 - 10:00 AM EST
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FirstEnergy's Pennsylvania Utilities Receive Approval for Infrastructure Improvement Plans

Work Includes Replacing Underground and Overhead Lines, Rebuilding Critical Infrastructure and Enhancing Equipment

GREENSBURG, Pa., Jan. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- To help ensure continued electric service reliability for two million Pennsylvania customers, FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) subsidiaries Metropolitan Edison (Met-Ed), Pennsylvania Electric Company (Penelec), Pennsylvania Power (Penn Power), and West Penn Power recently received approval from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) for the second phase of their Long Term Infrastructure Improvement Plans (LTIIP II). The plans outline an additional $572 million in capital investments that will be made over the next five years across FirstEnergy's Pennsylvania utilities.

FirstEnergy Corp. Logo (PRNewsfoto/FirstEnergy Corp.)

The newly approved LTIIP II plans are the second phase of accelerated distribution improvement projects in Pennsylvania.  The first phase included nearly $360 million in investments made from 2016-2019.  

"The improvement plan for each utility is designed to complement the work we already perform on our distribution network, year-in and year-out, to reduce the number and duration of outages experienced by our customers," said Scott R. Wyman, president of FirstEnergy's Pennsylvania Operations. "These investments build on earlier improvement plans and include rebuilding critical infrastructure such as overhead circuits, as well as replacing key equipment in our substations."

LTIIP II projects will include replacing older poles, underground and overhead lines and fuses; installing new substation equipment, network vaults and manhole covers; and reconfiguring circuits. FirstEnergy's Pennsylvania utilities also will submit separate plans in the coming months to address additional replacements and reinforcements of wooden distribution poles.

These targeted distribution projects complement each utility's annual tree trimming and vegetation management efforts, which work in tandem to help to minimize service interruptions.

Approximately $123 million of the work is expected to be completed in 2020 across FirstEnergy's Pennsylvania service areas, with the remainder spent over the next four years.

Expected 2020-2024 LTIIP II investments for each operating company are:

  • Met-Ed - $153 million
  • Penelec – approximately $200 million
  • Penn Power - $72 million
  • West Penn Power – approximately $147 million

The costs associated with these service reliability investments are expected to be recovered through Distribution System Improvement Charges (DSIC)s on monthly electric bills.  The DSIC charges are updated quarterly based on cumulative LTIIP investment and reflect new distribution equipment placed in service during the previous three months.

The bill impact in 2020 for a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) per month is expected to be:

  • Met-Ed – increase of $0.64, for a new monthly bill of $139.31
  • Penelec – increase of $0.64, for a new monthly bill of $149.71
  • Penn Power – increase of $1.34, for a new monthly bill of $136.23
  • West Penn Power – increase of $0.44, for a new monthly bill of $113.79

Both LTIIPs and DSICs were authorized by Pennsylvania Act 11, which was approved in 2012 and established a process to encourage electric, natural gas, water and sewer utilities in Pennsylvania to accelerate investments in aging infrastructure and help create economic benefits.

"We anticipate filing additional LTIIPs in coming years and are committed to a sound approach that will result in consistent reliability performance," Wyman said. "We will strive to achieve maximum reliability benefits for our customers while striking a balance to minimize impacts to their bills with cost-effective projects."        

Met-Ed serves about 570,000 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 approximately 585,000 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 165,000 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 725,000 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 24,500 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Visit FirstEnergy online at www.firstenergycorp.com and follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp.

Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 based on information currently available to management. Unless the context requires otherwise, as used herein, references to "we", "us", "our", and "FirstEnergy" refer to FirstEnergy Corp. Forward-looking 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 (see Glossary of Terms for definitions of capitalized terms): the ability to successfully execute an exit from commodity-based generation, including, without limitation, mitigating exposure for remedial activities associated with formerly owned generation assets; the risks associated with the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings involving FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. (FES), its subsidiaries, and FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating company (FENOC) (FES Bankruptcy) that could adversely affect us, our liquidity or results of operations, including, without limitation, that conditions to the FES Bankruptcy settlement agreement may not be met or that the FES Bankruptcy settlement agreement may not be otherwise consummated, and if so, the potential for litigation and payment demands against us by FES or FENOC or their creditors; the ability to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic and financial goals, including, but not limited to, our strategy to operate and grow as a fully regulated business, to execute our transmission and distribution investment plans, to continue to reduce costs through FE Tomorrow, which is the FirstEnergy initiative launched in late 2016 to identify our optimal organization structure and properly align corporate costs and systems to efficiently support FirstEnergy as a fully regulated company going forward, and other initiatives, and to improve our credit metrics, strengthen our balance sheet and grow earnings; legislative and regulatory developments, including, but not limited to, matters related to rates, compliance and enforcement activity; economic and weather conditions affecting future operating results, such as significant weather events and other natural disasters, and associated regulatory events or actions; changes in assumptions regarding 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, the impact of climate change or energy efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates; changes in national and regional economic conditions affecting us and/or our major industrial and commercial customers or others with which we do business; the risks associated with cyber-attacks and other disruptions to our 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 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 and other trust funds, or causing us to make contributions sooner, or in amounts that are larger, than currently anticipated; the risks associated with the decommissioning of our retired and former nuclear facilities; the risks and uncertainties associated with litigation, arbitration, mediation and like proceedings; labor disruptions by our unionized workforce; changes to significant accounting policies; any changes in tax laws or regulations, including the Tax Act, or adverse tax audit results or rulings; 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; 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; and the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in FirstEnergy's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. Dividends declared from time to time on FirstEnergy's common stock during any period may in the aggregate vary from prior periods due to circumstances considered by FirstEnergy'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's filings with the SEC, including but not limited to the most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q 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 as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.


Source: PR Newswire (January 23, 2020 - 10:00 AM EST)

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