Utilities
Utilities - Regulated Electric
$23.01B
12K
FirstEnergy Corp. is a public utility holding company primarily involved in the transmission, distribution, and generation of electricity. They serve over six million customers in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. The company's revenue is derived from electric service provided by its regulated distribution and transmission operations.
Key insights and themes extracted from this filing
The consolidated statements of income show a net income of $1.176 billion, indicating overall profitability. This is a key metric for assessing the company's financial health.
Total operating revenues increased from $12.459 billion in 2022 to $12.870 billion in 2023. This increase suggests growth in the company's core business activities.
Total operating expenses increased from $10.549 billion to $10.604 billion, indicating a slight increase in the cost of operations. This is an important factor to consider in relation to revenue growth.
The company's Energize365 program outlines significant capital expenditures aimed at enhancing customer service and reliability, indicating a strong focus on infrastructure development and modernization.
FirstEnergy consolidated the Pennsylvania Companies into FE PA on January 1, 2024, making it a single operating entity. This consolidation is expected to streamline operations and enhance efficiency.
The Ohio Companies plan to file a base rate case in the second quarter of 2024, indicating a proactive approach to addressing regulatory and rate-related matters.
The appointment of Toby L. Thomas as COO and A. Wade Smith as President, FirstEnergy Utilities, indicates a strengthening of the leadership team and a focus on operational expertise.
The company has begun implementation of a facility optimization strategy, reducing the number of office buildings based on employees working from home. This helps employees achieve their priorities and meet customer and business needs while promoting enhanced convenience and balance between work and personal commitments.
FirstEnergy is committed to supporting employees' work/life balance by providing flexible work arrangements for many of its employees and encouraging career growth as well as personal balance.
The SEC investigation and HB 6 related litigation could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations, liquidity or cash flows.
Cyber-attacks, electronic or physical data security breaches and other disruptions to our information technology systems, or those of third parties we are connected to or do business with, could compromise our business operations, critical and proprietary information and employee and customer data, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and reputation.
Our ability to capitalize on investment opportunities available to our transmission business depends, in part, on successful recovery of our transmission investments. Factors that may affect rate recovery of our transmission investments include: (1) FERC's timely approval of rates to recover such investments; (2) whether the investments are included in PJM's Regional Transmission Expansion Plan; (3) FERC's evolving policies with respect to incentive rates for transmission assets; (4) FERC's evolving policies with respect to the calculation of the base ROE component of transmission rates.
Pursuant to FERC's Order No. 1000 and subject to state and local siting and permitting approvals, non-incumbent developers now can compete for certain PJM transmission projects in the service territories of FirstEnergy's Regulated Transmission segment.
The company's coal-fired generation capacity exposes it to risks from regulations relating to coal, GHGs and CCRs, which could lead to increased costs or the need to spend significant resources to defend allegations of violation.
Our business follows economic cycles. Economic conditions, including inflationary and interest rate pressures, impact the demand for electricity and therefore declines in the demand for electricity will reduce our revenues.
FirstEnergy is engaged in an ongoing effort to create a culture of continuous improvement to strategically reduce our operating expenditures and continually reinvest in a more diverse capital program in support of our long-term strategy.
FirstEnergy continues to monitor supply chain risk as it anticipates these challenges continuing into 2024, and is mitigating these risks by: Utilizing a cross-functional team to forecast potential impacts to operations and programs; Expanding supply base to increase resiliency; Enhancing the demand management and material reservation process; Evaluating substitute products, reserving production capacity, and buying ahead in targeted categories; and Participating in discussions and initiatives with other utilities through EEI, which has a long history of mutual assistance in the electric utility industry.
We continually focus on limiting and reducing where possible, our operation and maintenance expenses. However, we expect to continue to face increased cost pressures related to operation and maintenance expenses, including in the areas of health care and pension costs.
Programs to drive system resiliency through automation technology and communication, including Ohio's Grid Mod I and II, Pennsylvania's LTIIP, New Jersey's EnergizeNJ, and implementing advanced metering infrastructure
Operational Flexibility Projects that build capacity and support evolving grid such as interconnection of New Jersey offshore wind and data center load
Enhance system performance by implementing new designs and technologies to reduce load at risk
FirstEnergy's primary focus is on our transmission and distribution businesses. However, emissions from our West Virginia power stations Fort Martin and Harrison serve as the primary source of our Scope 1 emissions - representing approximately 99% of our overall GHG emissions as of December 31, 2022 and greatly outnumber the emissions from our transmission and distribution operations.
Clean Energy: Including West Virginia solar generation, energy efficiency, electric vehicle infrastructure and energy storage
Infrastructure Renewal: Base distribution projects to address aging infrastructure
As part of our Climate Strategy, we pledged in 2020 to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. This GHG goal addresses company-wide emissions within our direct operational control, also known as Scope 1 emissions, across our transmission, distribution and regulated generation operations.
Reducing sulfur hexafluoride emissions: We're working to repair or replace, as appropriate, transmission breakers that leak sulfur hexafluoride, which is a gas commonly used by energy companies as an electrical insulating material and arc extinguisher in high-voltage circuit breakers and switchgear.
Electrifying our vehicle fleet: We're targeting 30% electrification of our light-duty and aerial truck fleet by 2030 and 100% electrification by 2050. To reach our electrification goal, we're striving for 100% electric or hybrid vehicle purchases for our light-duty and aerial truck fleet moving forward.
Our business follows economic cycles. Economic conditions, including inflationary and interest rate pressures, impact the demand for electricity and therefore declines in the demand for electricity will reduce our revenues.
We are subject to risks arising from the operation of our power plants and transmission and distribution equipment which could reduce revenues, increase expenses and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Weather conditions directly influence the demand for electric power. Demand for power generally peaks during the summer and winter months, with market prices also typically peaking at that time.