The state Public Utility Commission has released the results of an audit of FirstEnergy.
The study shows that the parent company of Penelec did mark some improvement in a few areas, including realizing about $174 million in operating and maintenance expense savings through the company’s FE Forward and FE Forward Refresh. About $41 million of that savings was allocated to Penelec. The audit also showed that the company is cooperating with investigations and meeting settlement agreement obligations, enhancing the company’s ethics and compliance culture, putting in new internal controls over financial reporting and establishing a new process to engage with third-party collections agencies.
The investigation did turn up some negative points as well, including Enhancing transparency in base rate filings by disclosing cost increases linked to prior executive misconduct, improving electric reliability by addressing the top outage causes with remedial programs and best practices and expanding penetration testing of Pennsylvania facilities to strengthen cybersecurity defenses.
The management efficiency investigation resulted in 12 follow-up recommendations related to prior audit findings and three new recommendations, but FirstEnergy said they are committed to addressing the items, and many are targeted for completion in the coming year.
The full report can be found online by clicking on the link below.
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