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Jersey Central Power & Light Files Solar Renewable Energy Financing Proposal

Posted on: Tuesday, 30 September 2008, 15:00 CDT

MORRISTOWN, N.J., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) today filed with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) a proposal designed to help increase the pace of solar project development in the state.

Under the proposal, JCP&L would enter into long-term agreements to purchase and sell Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SREC) to provide a stable basis for financing solar generation projects.

An SREC represents the solar renewable energy attributes of one megawatt-hour of generation from a solar generation facility that has been certified by the BPU Office of Clean Energy. The BPU has asked all the state's electric delivery companies to submit SREC-based financing plans with the goal of providing a predictable cash flow for solar generation projects.

Under its proposal, JCP&L would solicit SRECs to satisfy approximately 60 percent of the incremental SREC purchases needed in its service territory to meet the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) through the end of 2010. SRECs would equal 50 percent of the incremental purchases to meet the RPS in 2011, and 40 percent in 2012. In total, JCP&L expects the plan to support the phase-in of approximately 30 megawatts of solar projects through May 31, 2012.

JCP&L will seek proposals for SREC purchase agreements with terms of 10 to 15 years and will solicit proposals on a semi-annual basis through a series of requests for proposal (RFP). JCP&L will work through an independent RFP manager to perform solicitations. SRECs purchased through the contracts will then be sold to energy suppliers through an auction process and revenues from the sales will be used to offset program costs.

Only projects that have been approved by the Office of Clean Energy as being qualified to receive credit for SREC generation will be eligible to participate. Solar electric generation projects that received or will receive a rebate from the Customer On-Site Renewable Energy (CORE) Program in 2001 through 2008 will not be eligible to enter into SREC purchase agreements.

"This proposal demonstrates our continuing efforts to support cost-effective solutions for New Jersey's energy future," said Steve Morgan, president, JCP&L. "Solar energy and distributed energy solutions will play a key role in providing affordable, reliable energy."

JCP&L, a subsidiary of Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. , serves 1.1 million customers in 13 New Jersey counties.

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, the impact of the PUCO's rulemaking process on our Ohio utility subsidiaries' Electric Security Plan and Market Rate Offer filings, economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and margins, changes in markets for energy services, changing energy and commodity market prices and availability, 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 impact of the U.S. Court of Appeals' July 11, 2008 decision to vacate the CAIR rules and the scope of any laws, rules or regulations that may ultimately take their place, 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 Met-Ed and Penelec's transmission service charge filings with the PPUC (as well as 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.

FirstEnergy Corp.

CONTACT: Ron Morano, +1-973-401-8097

Web site: http://www.firstenergycorp.com/

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

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