September 15, 2023

For the fifth year in a row, FirstEnergy has been named by Site Selection magazine as one of the nation’s leading utilities in promoting economic development, helping to attract more than 12,000 new jobs and $7.3 billion in third-party corporate facility investment in our six-state service area in 2022.

Twenty Site Selection award winners were chosen from a field of more than 3,300 electric companies and cooperatives across the country. Winners were recognized for complementing reliable power delivery to their customers with a hands-on approach to encouraging business development in their operational areas.

“This is our 19th recognition by Site Selection in the past 21 years, which is a testament to our company’s commitment to economic development projects that benefit the customers we serve,” said Patrick Kelly, director, Economic Development. “We are proud to receive this honor once again, but even more important to us is the positive impacts these facilities bring to our local communities.”

The Economic Development team positively influenced 86 major projects in 2022, representing more than 12,000 new jobs for our service area, including:

• An energy storage system factory in West Virginia that will employ at least 750 people.
• A distribution center in Pennsylvania that will employ 3,500 people.
• A data center in Maryland.
• A chicken cooking facility and a solar panel manufacturing plant, both in Northeast Ohio.

The number of jobs that FirstEnergy helped to attract in 2022 is the largest among the companies recognized in Site Selection’s East North Central region.

“A major focus in 2022 was our work on our ‘State of the Customer’ initiative to help FirstEnergy better understand the unique requirements of our various commercial and industrial customers,” added Patrick. “Through research, segmentation and customer surveys last year, we have gained insight on how we can continue to provide top-notch service to our commercial and industrial customers for many years to come.”

Along with expertise in business development relationships and programs, FirstEnergy is investing in transmission system enhancements and grid modernization to provide world-class infrastructure capable of powering energy-intensive industries now and in the future. Our West Virginia utilities are also in the process of developing five utility-scale solar facilities that are intended to support economic development in the state, as a growing number of companies require that a portion of the electricity they purchase be generated by renewable sources.

To view the complete list of Site Selection magazine’s top utilities for 2023, click here*.

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