FirstEnergy

[Les Schaffer <schaffer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ohio Utility Studied in Blackout Probe
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Filed at 10:03 a.m. ET

AKRON, Ohio (AP) -- The effort to nail down the source of the massive
blackout has turned to northern Ohio, where the power system is
operated by FirstEnergy Corp., the nation's fourth-largest investor
owned utility.

Akron-based FirstEnergy has 16 power plants and an annual revenue of
more than $12 billion, with a service area that stretches from Ohio to
New Jersey.

The company is accustomed to scrutiny.

Its Davis-Besse nuclear plant east of Toledo has been shut down since
February 2002, when it was closed for maintenance. A month later, a
leak was found that had allowed boric acid to eat nearly through the
6-inch-thick steel cap on the plant's reactor vessel.  [Yoshie posted
on this one some time ago]

[snip]

FirstEnergy, which officials said owns four of the first five lines
that failed, said a system that is supposed to flash a red warning on
computer monitors at the company's control center was not operational
when the lines began failing Thursday afternoon.

[snip]

FirstEnergy executives met privately Saturday to determine the extent
of the utility's role in the outage. Lunches were brought in and entry
into FirstEnergy's downtown brick headquarters was strictly
controlled.

Earlier this month, a U.S. District Court judge in Ohio ruled that
FirstEnergy should have determined that changes at one of its
coal-fired plants would increase overall pollution emissions. A second
trial will determine penalties.

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic presidential candidate from
Cleveland and a FirstEnergy critic, said he was closely monitoring the
situation.

[snip]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Blackout-FirstEnergy.html




http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=FE
http://www.forbes.com/newswire/2003/08/07/rtr1052640.html

http://www.enronwatchdog.org/PDFs/badactors/FirstEnergy.pdf

http://securities.stanford.edu/1028/FE03-01/

http://www.gamblingmagazine.com/managearticle.asp?C=440&A=2

http://tdworld.com/ar/power_ameren_firstenergy_nipsco/


les schaffer