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2009 City of Akron NEWS Releases
from the desk of Mark Williamson

FIRSTENERGY SOLUTIONS PROVIDES COMMUNITY GRANTS OF MORE THAN $3.7 MILLION TO AKRON, SUMMIT COUNTY, BARBERTON AND GREEN
Program Gives Customers Long-Term Electric Generation Savings
(09/17/09) -

FirstEnergy Corp. For Release: Immediate
76 S. Main St.
Akron, OH 44308
www.firstenergycorp.com

News Media Contact:
Gretchan E. Sekulich (330) 384-2589

Akron, Ohio – Powering Our Communities, an innovative program from FirstEnergy Solutions (FES), a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE), will provide community grants of approximately $2.2 million to the City of Akron; $1 million to Summit County’s nine townships and the City of New Franklin; $300,000 to the City of Barberton; and $250,000 to the City of Green. In addition, this program will provide residents and small businesses of those communities with long-term electric generation savings.

"The funding available through Powering Our Communities is designed to help local communities during this difficult recession," said Anthony J. Alexander, president and chief executive officer of FirstEnergy Corp., during a press conference at the company’s West Akron Campus today. "The funding can be used by city and township officials to help pay for many things, including essential services such as police and fire protection that have been affected by budget cuts. At the same time, Powering Our Communities offers long-term discounted generation prices to residential and small commercial customers in these communities."

Powering Our Communities offers economic support to communities in the Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company and Toledo Edison service areas that purchase discounted electric generation supply from FES through government aggregation programs.

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 Akron; Summit County; Barberton; and Green residential customers will receive 6 percent off the Price to Compare and small businesses will get a 4 percent discount for an additional six years. These communities already had government aggregation programs with FES as the electric generation supplier until 2012.

"FirstEnergy Solutions’ offer comes at a crucial time for Akron," said Mayor Don Plusquellic. "We have been struggling to maintain police and fire jobs in the face of budget cuts and this funding definitely helps as we find ways to maintain essential services. Plus, by extending our contract with FirstEnergy Solutions for six more years, Akron customers could save millions in electric generation costs."

"Summit County communities in government aggregation programs will each receive a portion of the $1 million we are receiving from FirstEnergy Solutions, based on the size of the community," said Russell Pry, Summit County Executive. "Each community can determine how to best use this money to meet its specific needs. With lean budgets and the lingering recession, this is a big boost to our communities."

"We are pleased to be able to bring these savings to our residents," said Barberton Mayor Bob Genet. "In addition, the funding will also help our community during this economic downturn. This is a very good partnership between a local company, FirstEnergy Solutions, and Barberton."

"The City of Green will make good use of the funds, helping to make our community an even better place to live and work," said Mayor Dick Norton. "And, I know residents will appreciate the fact that they will save money on their electric bill for many years to come."

Powering Our Communities is being offered to the 50 communities in Ohio with government aggregation programs where electric generation is currently supplied by FES. Communities with government aggregation issues on the November ballot would also be eligible, as well as communities where residents have already approved electric aggregation. The program could save participating communities millions of dollars on generation costs over the next several years.

The level of funding to each community will be based on the number of customers who participate in the government aggregation program. No community will receive less than $50,000 in community grants.

Communities are able to form government 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.

"We are pleased that Akron, Summit County, Barberton and Green are the first communities to take advantage of this offer," said Alexander. "After all, FES employees live and work here, too, and we recognize that strong communities benefit everyone."

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’ government aggregation programs and specifically Powering Our Communities, community officials can call FirstEnergy Solutions’ Government Aggregation Program Manager Brenda Fargo at (330) 315-6898 or visit 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.

END

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