More Than $475M Will Be Invested In 2014 In The Ohio Edison Territory To Enhance And Maintain Electric System And Reliability

Company Increases Investment in Infrastructure Projects Designed to Help Reduce Number and Duration of Outages

Akron OH /PRNewswire/ - As part of its ongoing efforts to improve the durability and flexibility of its electric system, FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) plans to invest more than $475 million in 2014 on service reliability infrastructure upgrades in its Ohio Edison service territory. This represents about a $233 million increase compared to what the company spent on reliability infrastructure in the region last year.

Major projects scheduled for 2014 include building new substations, starting construction on a new 100-mile transmission line, installing enhanced remote-control technology in multiple facilities, inspecting and replacing utility poles, and continuing tree trimming work, including a special program to remove trees endangered by the Emerald Ash Borer.

"The infrastructure projects we have completed in recent years have helped produce fewer service interruptions for Ohio Edison customers, and our goal with the 2014 reliability spending is to continue this positive trend," said Randall A. Frame, regional president, Ohio Edison. "The infrastructure projects are designed to help maintain our system on a day-to-day basis to benefit customers now while helping prepare our system for future load growth."

Of FirstEnergy's $475 million infrastructure investment in the region for 2014, more than $344 million will be for transmission-related projects built and owned by American Transmission Systems Incorporated, a FirstEnergy transmission company.

The various infrastructure projects are expected to provide both localized and widespread benefits to Ohio Edison's customers in northeast and central Ohio. Projects scheduled in 2014 include:

• Beginning construction on a new 100-mile 345-kilovolt (kV) transmission line from FirstEnergy's Bruce Mansfield Power Plant along the Ohio River to the Cleveland area to enhance system reliability. It is anticipated that approximately $128 million will be invested in this multi-year project in 2014.
• Starting construction on a new $52 million transmission substation in the Massillon area and a new $38 millionsubstation in Toronto, Ohio, to help enhance system reliability.
• Continuing construction work on a new 138-kV transmission line in the Springfield area to help enhance redundancy and provide additional system flexibility. It is anticipated that approximately $34 million will be spent on this multi-year project in 2014.
• Expanding the electric system to serve customers in the eastern Ohio shale gas region, including a new $4.8 milliontransmission line segment near Boardman to serve Pennant Midstream facilities.
• Installing remote-control equipment and breaker upgrades at substations in Portage, Mahoning and Trumbull counties at a cost of more than $1.6 million.
• Investing more than $18.6 million as part of Ohio Edison's ongoing tree trimming program to maintain proper clearances to help reduce tree-related outages. Some of the scheduled communities include Akron, Alliance, Ashland, Aurora,Barberton, Bellevue, Elyria, Girard, Lisbon, Lorain, Mansfield, Marion, Massillon, Medina, Niles, North Ridgeville, Ravenna,Sandusky, Springfield, Twinsburg, Warren and Youngstown. Overall, more than 5,000 miles of Ohio Edison distribution lines will be trimmed in 2013.
• Investing approximately $800,000 to proactively remove trees affected by the Emerald Ash Borer, particularly those that could fall on Ohio Edison equipment and result in service interruptions.
• Replacing wire and adding capacity to major circuits in Columbiana, Stark and Trumbull counties at a cost of $3 million.
• Completing a new $1.2 million modular substation in Bath Township to serve additional load growth.
• Investing more than $6.8 million inspecting and replacing distribution poles in the Ohio Edison service area. This inspection process is conducted on a 10-year cycle. More than 59,000 utility poles will be inspected in 2014, with about 2,000 expected to be replaced.

Ohio Edison serves more than 1 million customers across 36 Ohio counties. Visit FirstEnergy on the web at www.firstenergycorp.com, and follow Ohio Edison on Twitter @OhioEdison.

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 Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York.

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," "will," "intend," "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, in general, and the retail sales market in particular; the impact of the regulatory process on the pending matters before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and in the various states in which we do business including, but not limited to, matters related to rates and pending rate cases; the uncertainties of various cost recovery and cost allocation issues resulting from American Transmission Systems, Incorporated's realignment into PJM Interconnection LLC; economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and margins; regulatory outcomes associated with storm restoration, including but not limited to Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Irene and the October snowstorm of 2011; changing energy, capacity and commodity market prices including, but not limited to, coal, natural gas and oil, and availability and their impact on retail margins; the continued ability of our regulated utilities to recover their costs; costs being higher than anticipated and the success of our policies to control costs and to mitigate low energy, capacity and market prices; other legislative and regulatory changes, and revised environmental requirements, including possible greenhouse gas emission, water discharge, water intake and coal combustion residual regulations, the potential impacts of Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), and/or any laws, rules or regulations that ultimately replace CAIR, and the effects of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rules including our estimated costs of compliance; the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of the capital expenditures that may arise in connection with any litigation, including New Source Review 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 the deactivation of certain older regulated and competitive fossil units including the impact on vendor commitments, and the timing thereof as they relate to, among other things, 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 Nuclear Regulatory Commission or as a result of the incident atJapan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant); issues arising from the indications of cracking in the shield building at Davis-Besse; the impact of future changes to the operational status or availability of our generating units; the risks and uncertainties associated with litigation, arbitration, mediation and like proceedings, including, but not limited to, any such proceedings related to vendor commitments; replacement power costs being higher than anticipated or not fully hedged; the ability to comply with applicable state and federal reliability standards and energy efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates; changes in customers' demand for power, including but not limited to, changes resulting from the implementation of state and federal energy efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates; the ability to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic and financial goals including, but not limited to, the successful implementation of our transmission plan, the ability to reduce costs and to successfully complete our announced financial plans designed to improve our credit metrics and strengthen our balance sheet, including but not limited to, the benefits from our announced dividend reduction and our proposed capital raising and debt reduction initiatives; 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 Regulated Transmission segments and to continue to successfully implement our direct retail sales strategy in the Competitive Energy Services segment; changing market conditions that could affect the measurement of liabilities and the value of assets held in our Nuclear Decommissioning Trusts, 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 announced financial plan, the cost of such capital and overall condition of the capital and credit markets affecting us and our subsidiaries; actions that may be taken by credit rating agencies that could negatively affect us and our subsidiaries' access to financing, increase the costs thereof, and increase requirements to post additional collateral to support outstanding commodity positions, letters of credit and other financial guarantees; changes in national and regional economic conditions affecting us, our subsidiaries and our major industrial and commercial customers, and other counterparties including fuel suppliers, with which we do business; issues concerning the stability 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 United States 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, except as required by law, any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.