AKRON, Ohio – FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) remains among the nation’s leading utilities in promoting economic development, according to Site Selection magazine. This marks the 11th time in the past 13 years the company has received this honor.
In 2013, FirstEnergy helped attract more than $3 billion in third-party capital investment to its Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia and Maryland service areas that is expected to create nearly 7,800 new jobs.
The award recognizes utility companies that complement reliable power delivery to their customers with a hands-on approach to encouraging business development in their operational areas.
Recipient utilities are chosen based on a mix of objective and subjective criteria, including what the utility does to help create jobs and facilitate investment in its area, Web site tools and data that can be used to help business development and survey responses from customers and potential customers.
“FirstEnergy works hard to help the communities we serve attract new businesses and other activity that promotes economic development,” said Patrick Kelly, director of economic development at FirstEnergy. “Site Selection magazine’s award demonstrates that our efforts continue to enjoy success and recognition in the industry.”
Among the largest job-creating developments fostered by FirstEnergy’s collaborative economic development activities in 2013 were:
- Proctor & Gamble (Southampton Township, Franklin County), $93 million invested, 963 new jobs
- Amazon (Robbinsville, N.J.), $200 million invested, 700 new jobs
- Antero Resources (Bridgeport, W.Va.), $16 million invested, 500 new jobs
- First Quality (Lewistown), $25 million invested, 150 jobs
- Home Depot (Troy Township, Wood County, Ohio), $200 million invested, 250 new jobs
In 2013 FirstEnergy also formed a “Shale Task Force” to gain a better understanding of this emerging industry and how it will impact the company’s utilities and power plants in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, considered to be the key shale gas states.
FirstEnergy representatives are developing strong relationships with shale gas companies, primarily midstream and downstream operations, to better facilitate future growth, explore mutual business opportunities and promote mutual planning of infrastructure enhancements to help support a growing electrical load in the region.
Other ongoing FirstEnergy economic development programs and partnerships continue to help create new jobs and generate capital investments include:
- FirstProspector – an interactive internet mapping program that allows users to search for available land sites and commercial buildings in FirstEnergy’s service area. The program, which includes presentation-quality demographic and business analysis reports, is designed to help speed up and simplify the search process for new locations.
- IMPACTfactor+ – a computer simulation program for economic development that helps FirstEnergy’s communities model the increase in economic activity as a result of new investment in an area’s economy. Customized IMPACTfactor+ reports are generated for economic development partners to help measure the impact on jobs, output, personal income and tax revenue using industry-specific multipliers.
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. Its generation subsidiaries currently control nearly 18,000 megawatts of capacity from a diversified mix of scrubbed coal, non-emitting nuclear, natural gas, hydro and other renewables. Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp.