The firm will purchase the four competitive natural gas generating plants which are owned directly or indirectly by FirstEnergy subsidiaries Allegheny Energy Supply Company and Allegheny Generating Company.
Scheduled to be completed in the third quarter of 2017, the deal is subject to customary and other closing conditions, including approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and other agencies, as well as third-party consents.
The assets considered for sale include 638MW Springdale Generating Facility (Units 1-5) in Springdale Township, 88MW Chambersburg Generating Facility (Units 12-13) in Guildford Township, 88MW Gans Generating Facility (Units 8-9) in Springhill Township and 45MW Hunlock Creek in Hunlock Creek.
The sale is part of FirstEnergy’s strategy of operating as a fully regulated utility company.
Upon completion of the sale, FirstEnergy will own approximately 15,380MW of generation capacity from nuclear, coal, hydro, wind and solar facilities located across Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Jersey, Virginia and Illinois.
FirstEnergy earlier said that it intends to exit from its competitive generation markets. It was also considering options including moving some of its competitive assets to more regulated or regulated-like constructs, or selling or deactivating additional units.
Recently, the firm energized $30m transmission project in Elyria, Ohio, to meet rising electricity demand in the area.
The project is part of FirstEnergy's Energizing the Future initiative, which aims to invest $4.2bn-$5.8bn in electric transmission infrastructure between 2017 and 2021 in order to meet the future power demands.
Image: FirstEnergy headquarters in downtown Akron, Ohio, US. Photo: courtesy of DangApricot/Wikipedia.
