Ohio counsel opposes FirstEnergy proposal

2/24/2011
BLADE STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

Federal regulators should deny FirstEnergy Corp.’s request to pass onto customers millions of dollars in costs related to its decision to change regional transmission organizations, the office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel said this week in a protest to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

In 2009, FirstEnergy said it planned to consolidate its transmission assets into a single regional transmission organization. Those organizations coordinate transmission of electricity across wide geographic regions to balance supply and demand.

The consumers’ counsel, the state’s residential utility advocate, said in a filing that FirstEnergy had not shown customers would benefit from the decision. The agency said it could cost customers as much as $84 million annually.