FirstEnergy
FirstEnergy Corp. is an electric utility headquartered in Akron, Ohio. It was established when Ohio Edison merged with Centerior Energy in 1997. Its subsidiaries and affiliates are involved in distributing, transmitting, and generating electricity, energy management, and other energy-related services. Its ten electric utility operating companies comprise one of the United States' largest investor-owned utilities, based on serving 6 million customers within a area of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. In 2018, FirstEnergy ranked 219 on the Fortune 500 list of the largest public corporations in the United States by revenue.
FirstEnergy has 3106.4 MW of energy generation capacity, with coal making up 99.2% of that capacity and solar power accounting for the remaining amount.
On July 21, 2020, Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, Larry Householder, former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges, and three others were accused of accepting $60 million in bribes from FirstEnergy in exchange for $1.3 billion worth of benefits in the form of Ohio House Bill 6, as part of what became known as the Ohio nuclear bribery scandal. The stock price of the company plummeted within hours of the arrests being made. On July 22, 2021, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio announced that FirstEnergy would be fined $230 million for their part in the scandal. This was the largest criminal fine ever collected by the Southern District.
History
Ohio Edison
Ohio Edison Company was a publicly traded holding company that began in 1930 with the consolidation of 200 electric companies. By 1950, it ended up with two utility operating companies, Pennsylvania Power and Ohio Edison. It continued in existence until 1997 when its merger with Centerior formed FirstEnergy.Subsidiaries
- In 1944, the Pennsylvania Power Company became a subsidiary of Ohio Edison and is now one of the ten operating utilities.
- In 1950, the Ohio Edison Company merged with the Ohio Public Service Company, which continued to operate under its new name. It is now one of the ten FirstEnergy operating companies and the main power provider for northeastern Ohio outside of Cleveland.
Centerior
- The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, commonly known as The Illuminating Company, was a publicly traded utility company through 1986 until it affiliated with Toledo Edison to come under the control of Centerior. Having been formed in 1929, by 1940 it had become one of ten major direct subsidiaries of North American Company, which in turn had been one of the original 12 stocks listed in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. In 1978, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company sought to buy Muny Light when Cleveland defaulted because bank credit was not extended without sale of the city's power company. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission charged Cleveland Electric Illuminating with a series of antitrust violations. It is one of three power companies serving Greater Cleveland, the others being city-owned Cleveland Public Power and Painesville Municipal Electric.
- Toledo Edison Company was a publicly traded utility company, until it affiliated with The Illuminating Company to form Centerior in 1986. It is the main power provider for northwestern Ohio.
GPU
- Jersey Central Power and Light
- Pennsylvania Electric Company
- Metropolitan Edison
Through the 2001 acquisition of GPU, FirstEnergy also acquired MYR Group, a subsidiary that GPU had created as a publicly traded company in the 1996 reorganization. MYR Group's services included installing and maintaining utility power lines and cellular telephone communications towers.
GPU is best known as the former owner of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. In 1989, Standley H. Hoch, a former executive with General Dynamics, became the CEO of GPU. Hoch had two main goals: cut costs and fight to repeal the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, which made it difficult for utilities to operate across state lines.
Northeast blackout of 2003
On Thursday, August 14, 2003, a widespread power outage across the Northeast and Midwest of the United States, as well as Ontario, affected 55 million people and left them without power until it was fully restored on August 16. The outage was attributed mostly to FirstEnergy's failure to trim the trees around its high voltage lines in a certain sector of Ohio; heat and extreme power needs caused the lines to sag, coming into contact with the trees and causing flashover.Allegheny Energy
was an electric utility serving customers in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland. Its regulated subsidiaries were West Penn Power, Monongahela Power, and The Potomac Edison Company. The electric generating plants were operated by subsidiary Allegheny Energy Supply Company and Monongahela Power.Before the formation of Allegheny Energy, the holding company was known as Allegheny Power System which had the three utility operating units. The brand name Allegheny Power was used on customer bills, trucks and company equipment starting in 1996. In 1997, the company attempted to merge with Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Light Company. The merger was withdrawn by both parties, and the companies did not merge. In 1999, Allegheny Power purchased the West Virginia operations of UtiliCorp United's West Virginia Power. UtiliCorp purchased Virginia Electric and Power Company's West Virginia service area in 1986 and renamed the acquired service area as West Virginia Power.
In February 2010, Allegheny Energy announced plans to merge with FirstEnergy. The merger was approved by stockholders of both companies, by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and by the regulatory commissions in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The merger was finalized when the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission approved the merger on February 24, 2011. The merger officially closed on February 25, 2011. The merger did not include Allegheny's service area in Virginia, which was purchased in 2010 by the Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative and the Rappahannock Electric Cooperative.
After the merger with Allegheny Energy, FirstEnergy was the largest investor-owned electric utility in the country for a short period, before the Exelon/Constellation and Duke Energy/Progress Energy mergers.
FirstEnergy Formation
FirstEnergy was formed on November 7, 1997, when Ohio Edison acquired Centerior Energy and its subsidiaries for $1.6 billion in stock. The company was acquired with plans for a restructuring and layoffs to cut costs. That same month the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio initiated an investigation into the reliability of FirstEnergy's energy transmission in the context of possible plant shutdowns and prior problems with Centerior.Bankruptcy of FirstEnergy Services Corp. and formation of Energy Harbor Corp.
FirstEnergy Services Corp. was incorporated on August 8, 1997, with the primary purpose of providing intracompany services, such as the operation of subsidiary generation companies and financial transactions. It underwent several mergers and fictitious name filings beginning with its first filed merger on March 31, 1998. As of September 1, 2001, FirstEnergy Services Corp. became FirstEnergy Solutions Corp.On March 31, 2018, FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. filed for bankruptcy. FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. was a member of FirstEnergy Generation, LLC–itself a generation subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp.–while FirstEnergy Corp. itself remained solvent. The case has been closely watched as it could have significant implications for the U.S. power sector. For instance, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio has asserted its primacy over the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission relating to some of FirstEnergy Solutions Corp.’s FERC-regulated power purchase agreements.
FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. filed its eighth amended bankruptcy plan on October 14, 2019. In 2020, it emerged from bankruptcy. The company's post-bankruptcy fate was two-fold. First, the company was incorporated in Delaware under the name Energy Harbor Corp. and has since continued to operate in Ohio under the same name. For legal purposes, Energy Harbor Corp. is registered in Ohio as a foreign entity. Secondly regarding post-bankruptcy fate, FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. has also continued its existence as an actively chartered Ohio company, but this is only on paper rather than in practice: that entity does not conduct any business.