AKRON, Ohio, Sept. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- For the ninth time in the past 11 years, Site Selection magazine has named FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: [ FE ]) one of the top utilities in the country for promoting economic development. In 2011, the company helped attract more than $1.7 billion in capital investment to its Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia and Maryland service areas that is expected to create more than 7,400 new jobs.

The designation recognizes utility companies that complement reliable power delivery to their customers with a hands-on approach to encouraging business development in their operational areas. Using 2011 data, the award is based on a mix of objective and subjective criteria, including what the utility does to help create jobs and facilitate investment in its area, website tools and data that can be used to help business development, and survey input from corporate end users and site consultants.

"FirstEnergy's strong commitment to economic development continues to play a key role in attracting capital investment and new jobs to the states where we have operations, and we are proud that Site Selection magazine has once again recognized our efforts," said Joel D. Bailey, vice president, Local Affairs & Business Development, FirstEnergy.

Some of the more prominent economic development projects involving FirstEnergy in 2011 included: Chrysler adding 1,100 jobs and investing more than $500 million in Toledo, Ohio, and Republic Engineered Products adding 450 jobs and investing more than $85 million in Lorain, Ohio; Calfrac Well Services adding 300 jobs and investing $150 million in Uniontown, Pa.; and Macy's adding 1,200 jobs and investing $150 million in Martinsburg, W. Va.

In addition, the company's economic development team remains active in such efforts as the New Jersey Clean Cities Coalition, a non-profit organization that promotes education related to the development and use of alternative fuels, alternative vehicles and the appropriate related infrastructure; Project Get Ready, a City of Akron and University of Akron initiative designed to prepare for the installation of electric vehicle charging units; and the Tech Belt Innovation Center, based in Warren, Ohio, that will provide an accelerated integration of new advanced and renewable technologies to the grid.

FirstEnergy also has partnered with First Solar and the State of Maryland to bring on line the largest solar project in the state and one of the largest on the east coast. FirstEnergy Solutions, FirstEnergy's competitive subsidiary, has contracted to purchase the output and renewable energy credits from the 20 megawatt photovoltaic solar power project and Potomac Edison, a FirstEnergy utility, has designed the infrastructure to get the power to the grid. The project is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Other ongoing FirstEnergy economic development projects and partnerships that help create new jobs and generate capital investments, include:

FirstProspector– an interactive internet mapping program that allows users to search for available land sites and commercial buildings in FirstEnergy's service area. The program, which includes presentation-quality demographic and business analysis reports, is designed to help speed up and simplify the search process for new locations.
Export Now Program – anon-goingpartnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce Foreign Commercial Service helps provide export trade opportunities for FirstEnergy's small and medium-sized manufacturing customers. Now in its 17^th year, more than 270 FirstEnergy customers have participated in international trade missions and events in Canada, Mexico, South America and Europe. In 2011, six FirstEnergy customers from Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey participated in the U.S. Commercial Service's "Mexico& the Americas" Trade Winds event.
IMPACTfactor+– a computer simulation program for economic development that helps FirstEnergy's communities model the increase in economic activity as a result of new investment in an area's economy. Customized IMPACTfactor+ reports are generated for economic development partners to help measure the impact on jobs, output, personal income and tax revenue using industry-specific multipliers.

FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company 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 Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and West Virginia. Its generation subsidiaries control more than 20,000 megawatts of capacity from a diversified mix of scrubbed coal, non-emitting nuclear, natural gas, hydro, pumped-storage hydro and other renewables. Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp.

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, the impact of the regulatory process on the pending matters before FERC and in the various states in which we do business including, but not limited to, matters related to rates, the status of the PATH project in light of the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C., (PJM) direction to suspend work on the project pending review of its planning process, its re-evaluation of the need for the project and the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of any related capital expenditures, the uncertainties of various cost recovery and cost allocation issues resulting from ATSI's realignment into PJM, economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and margins, changes in markets for energy services, changing energy and commodity market prices and availability, financial derivative reforms that could increase our liquidity needs and collateral costs, the continued ability of FirstEnergy's regulated utilities to collect transition and other costs, operation and maintenance costs being higher than anticipated, other legislative and regulatory changes, and revised environmental requirements, including possible GHG emission, water intake and coal combustion residual regulations, the potential impacts of any laws, rules or regulations that ultimately replace CAIR, including CSAPR which was stayed by the courts on December 30, 2011, and the effects of the EPA's MATS rules, the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of the capital expenditures that may arise in connection with any litigation including NSR litigation or potential regulatory initiatives or rulemakings (including that such expenditures could result in our decision to shut down or idle certain generating units), the uncertainties associated with the company's plan to retire its older unscrubbed regulated and competitive fossil units, including the impact on vendor commitments the timing of, those deactivations as they relate to, among other things, the Reliability Must Run arrangements and the reliability of the transmission grid, adverse regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes with respect to our nuclear operations (including, but not limited to the revocation or non-renewal of necessary licenses, approvals or operating permits by the NRC including as a result of the incident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant), issues that could result from the NRC's review of the indications of cracking in the Davis-Besse plant shield building, adverse legal decisions and outcomes related to Met-Ed's and Penelec's ability to recover certain transmission costs through their transmission service charge riders, the continuing availability of generating units, changes in their operational status and any related impacts on vendor commitments, replacement power costs being higher than anticipated or inadequately hedged, the ability to comply with applicable state and federal reliability standards and energy efficiency mandates, changes in customers' demand for power, including but not limited to, changes resulting from the implementation of state and federal energy efficiency mandates, the ability to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic goals, FirstEnergy's ability to improve electric commodity margins and the impact of, among other factors, the increased cost of fuel and fuel transportation on such margins, the ability to experience growth in the distribution business, the changing market conditions that could affect the measurement of liabilities and the value of assets held in FirstEnergy's NDTs, pension trusts and other trust funds, and cause FirstEnergy and its subsidiaries to make additional contributions sooner, or in amounts that are larger than currently anticipated, the impact of changes to material accounting policies, the ability to access the public securities and other capital and credit markets in accordance with FirstEnergy's financing plan, the cost of such capital and overall condition of the capital and credit markets affecting FirstEnergy and its subsidiaries, changes in general economic conditions affecting FirstEnergy and its subsidiaries, interest rates and any actions taken by credit rating agencies that could negatively affect FirstEnergy's and its subsidiaries' access to financing or their costs and increase requirements to post additional collateral to support outstanding commodity positions, LOCs and other financial guarantees, the state of the national and regional economy and its impact on major industrial and commercial customers of FirstEnergy and its subsidiaries, issues concerning the soundness of domestic and foreign financial institutions and counterparties with which FirstEnergy and its subsidiaries do business, the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in FirstEnergy's and its applicable subsidiaries' SEC 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, except as required by law, any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

[ www.firstenergycorp.com ]

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.

[ Back to top ]

RELATED LINKS
[ http://www.firstenergycorp.com ]

Contributing Sources

Market Wire

N@N

FirstEnergy Again Named Top Utility for Economic Development by Site Selection Magazine

FirstEnergy Again Named Top Utility for Economic Development by Site Selection Magazine