FirstEnergy Subsidiary Signs Renewable Power Supply Agreement with the University...

FirstEnergy Subsidiary Signs Renewable Power Supply Agreement with the
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

AKRON, Ohio, March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:
FE) announced today that its subsidiary, FirstEnergy Solutions (FES), has
signed its largest green supply contract with the University of Pittsburgh
Medical Center (UPMC), a leader in pursuing environmentally sustainable
practices within the health care industry.
UPMC has purchased approximately 24,000 renewable energy certificates
(RECs) of FirstEnergy Solutions' MixedGreens(TM) product as a source of a
portion of their electric generation. This agreement represents 10 percent of
UPMC's electricity load in the Pittsburgh area.
One REC is produced when a renewable energy generator produces one
megawatt-hour of electricity. When a company purchases RECs, it is choosing to
support the development of renewable electric generation.
MixedGreens is a combination of renewable resources, including wind,
biomass, geothermal electric, photovoltaic and hydroelectric.
"We have 145 megawatts of capacity available to us from wind farms in
western Pennsylvania, with another 70 megawatts expected to go online this
year," says Arthur Yuan, vice president of Sales and Marketing for FES. "Our
MixedGreens energy products are a great way for customers to support
environmentally friendly energy resources."
"At UPMC, we strive to enhance the quality of life for our patients and
the communities in which we live and work. Our agreement with FirstEnergy
Solutions serves as another example of our commitment to advancing
environmentally sustainable practices, while supporting research and education
focused on environmental links to disease," says Allison Robinson, director of
UPMC's environmental initiatives.
For instance, the health system recently created a $5-million "green
action fund" to support environmentally friendly projects across the health
system. It's also building one of the first green pediatric hospitals,
supporting significant paper and equipment recycling programs, and removing
mercury-containing items from its hospitals. UPMC is the premier health
system in western Pennsylvania and one of the most renowned academic medical
centers in the United States. Widely recognized for its innovations in
patient care, research, technology and health care management, UPMC has
transformed the economic landscape in western Pennsylvania. The region's
largest employer, with 48,000 employees and nearly $7 billion in revenue, UPMC
comprises 20 hospitals, 400 outpatient sites and doctors' offices, retirement
and long-term care facilities, an insurance plan with more than 1 million
members, and commercial and international ventures. About 5,000 physicians
are affiliated with UPMC, including nearly 2,500 employed physicians. For
more information, go to www.upmc.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 seven electric utility operating companies
comprise the nation's fifth largest investor-owned electric system, based on
4.5 million customers served within a 36,100-square-mile area of Ohio,
Pennsylvania and New Jersey; and 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 our, or our 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 our
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 Ohio and
Pennsylvania, economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and
margins, changes in markets for energy services, changing energy and commodity
market prices, 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 including revised environmental
requirements and possible greenhouse gas emissions regulation, 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 levels of emission reductions related to
the Consent Decree resolving the New Source Review litigation or other
potential regulatory initiatives, 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
including, but not limited to, the Demand for Information issued to FENOC on
May 14, 2007) as disclosed in our SEC filings, the timing and outcome of
various proceedings before the PUCO (including, but not limited to, the
Distribution Rate Cases and the generation supply plan filing for the Ohio
Companies and the successful resolution of the issues remanded to the PUCO by
the Supreme Court of Ohio regarding the Rate Stabilization Plan and the Rate
Certainty Plan, including the deferral of fuel costs) and the PPUC (including
the resolution of the Petitions for Review filed with the Commonwealth Court
of Pennsylvania with respect to the transition rate plan for Met-Ed and
Penelec), the continuing availability of generating units and their ability to
continue 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, changing market conditions
that could affect the value of assets held in our nuclear decommissioning
trust fund, pension fund and other trust funds, the ability to access the
public securities and other capital markets and the cost of such capital, the
risks and other factors discussed from time to time in our 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 us to predict all such factors, nor can we assess the impact of
any such factor on our 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. We expressly disclaim any
current intention to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as
a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.

Ellen Raines, FirstEnergy, +1-330-384-5808; or Wendy Zellner, UPMC,
+1-412-647-3555