BUSINESS BRIEF

FirstEnergy cancels cold-weather surcharge

4/29/2014

AKRON — Facing upset customers and investigations from regulators, FirstEnergy Solutions has decided not to move forward with a one-time surcharge on households to cover costs associated with January’s cold weather.

The charge would have been $5 to $15 per household.

“Even though our contracts allow us to pass through surcharges, we have decided we won’t seek reimbursement from residential customers for the added costs,” said Donald Schneider, president of FirstEnergy Solutions.

But the company is not waiving the charge for business customers. Businesses will pay a one-time charge that could be up to 3 percent of their annual FirstEnergy Solutions bill.

FirstEnergy Solutions — a subsidiary of Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. — sells electricity contracts in six different states, serving as an alternative to the local utilities.