FirstEnergy Announces Plans to Build New $45 Million Transmission
Control Center in Akron
AKRON, Ohio, Nov. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy
Corp. (NYSE: FE) today announced plans to construct a new
state-of-the-art and environmentally friendly transmission control
center in Akron. The highly secure facility will be built at
the company's West Akron Complex, an existing 150-acre site that
already houses an Ohio Edison service center, a FirstEnergy call
center, and a large office building where several company
subsidiaries are based.
While preliminary site preparation work is being done this fall,
groundbreaking for the 70,000-square-foot facility is expected to
occur in the spring of 2013, with planned completion of
construction by the end of the year. The new "Akron Control
Center," as it will be known, is expected to cost approximately
$45 million.
"The new Akron Control Center is designed to make our current
high level of transmission service reliability even better," said
Charles E. Jones, Jr., senior vice
president and president, FirstEnergy Utilities. "In addition,
we will utilize high-performance, environmentally friendly design,
construction and operational options for this new building."
The Akron Control Center will feature advanced computer systems
to monitor electrical grid reliability in various geographic areas
of the country where FirstEnergy has operations. Once
operational, the new Akron Transmission Control Center will oversee
and monitor transmission operations in areas served by
FirstEnergy's Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company,
Toledo Edison, Pennsylvania Power,
Metropolitan Edison, Pennsylvania
Electric Company and Jersey Central Power & Light
utilities. In addition, FirstEnergy's Fairmont, W. Va., Transmission Control Center
will continue to monitor transmission operations in areas served by
the company's Mon Power, Potomac Edison and West Penn Power
utilities.
The new facility will replace the company's existing Ohio
Transmission Control Center located in Wadsworth, Ohio, which will be used as a
back-up and training facility. Most of the 112 employees who
currently work in Wadsworth will
be transferred to Akron in stages as
the new facility is completed.
FirstEnergy expects to submit this project to be considered for
the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) certification. LEED is an
internationally recognized third-party green building certification
system that recognizes buildings that have met the highest possible
green building standards and verifies a project's level of
environmental responsibility and ability to provide occupants with
a healthy place to live and work.
If approved, the Akron Control Center would be FirstEnergy's
third major facility to receive LEED certification. In 2009,
the company's West Akron Campus received Gold Level LEED status,
making it one of the largest such green office buildings in
Ohio; and in 2011, the company's
new West Virginia Operations Headquarters, in Fairmont, W. Va., received Certified LEED
status.
The Akron Control Center is being designed by Akron, Ohio-based Braun & Steidl
Architects. Fairlawn,
Ohio-based Welty Building Company, which previously served
as construction manager for FirstEnergy's West Akron Campus, also
will be construction manager for this project. In addition,
GPD, of Akron, is providing
electrical/mechanical engineering services and Thorson Baker & Associates, of Richfield, Ohio, is doing site development and
structural engineering.
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 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, changing
energy, capacity and commodity market prices and availability,
financial derivative reforms that could increase our liquidity
needs and collateral costs, the continued ability of our 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 CAIR, and any laws,
rules or regulations that ultimately replace CAIR, 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 deactivate or idle certain generating
units), the uncertainties associated with our plans to deactivate
our older unscrubbed regulated and competitive fossil units and our
plans to change the operations of certain fossil plants, including
the impact on vendor commitments, and the timing of those
deactivations and operational changes as they relate to, among
other things, the RMR arrangements and the reliability of the
transmission grid, issues that could result from the NRC's review
of the indications of cracking in the Davis Besse Plant shield
building, 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 or as a result of the incident at
Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
Plant), adverse legal decisions and outcomes related to ME's and
PN'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, our 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 Regulated Distribution and Competitive Energy
Services segments, changing market conditions that could affect the
measurement of liabilities and the value of assets held in our
NDTs, pension trusts and other trust funds, and cause us and our
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
our financing plans, the cost of such capital and overall condition
of the capital and credit markets affecting us and our
subsidiaries, changes in general economic conditions affecting us
and our subsidiaries, interest rates and any actions taken by
credit rating agencies that could negatively affect us and our
subsidiaries' access to financing, increased costs thereof, 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 our major industrial and commercial customers, issues
concerning the soundness of domestic and foreign financial
institutions and counterparties with which we do business, the
risks and other factors discussed from time to time in our SEC
filings, and other similar factors. Dividends declared from time to
time on FE's common stock during any annual period may in the
aggregate vary from the indicated amount due to circumstances
considered by FE'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. 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.
SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.