FirstEnergy Corp.

What does FirstEnergy own?
FirstEnergy owns ten regulated electric utilities, including Ohio Edison, The Illuminating Company, Toledo Edison, Met-Ed, Penelec, West Penn Power, Jersey Central Power & Light, Mon Power, Potomac Edison, and Penn Power, plus about 24,000 miles of transmission lines and regulated generation in West Virginia.

Is FirstEnergy publicly traded?
Yes. It trades on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker FE and is held widely by institutional investors.

Who founded FirstEnergy?
FirstEnergy was formed in 1997 through the merger of Ohio Edison Company and Centerior Energy Corporation. It expanded through mergers with GPU in 2001 and Allegheny Energy in 2011.

Where is FirstEnergy headquartered?
FirstEnergy is headquartered at 341 White Pond Drive in Akron, Ohio, USA.

How many brands does FirstEnergy own?
It operates ten utility brands across six states, all owned by the single FirstEnergy Corp. holding company.

Who owns FirstEnergy?
FirstEnergy is an independent public company owned by its shareholders. No parent company or controlling family exists.

What was the FirstEnergy bribery scandal?
The company admitted to funneling about $60 million to a dark money group tied to Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder to pass House Bill 6 in 2019. It paid $230 million under a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement, $100 million to the SEC in 2024, and $250 million in Ohio refunds and forfeitures ordered in 2025.

FirstEnergy was created on November 7, 1997, when Ohio Edison Company acquired Centerior Energy Corporation and its subsidiaries for approximately $1.6 billion in stock. Ohio Edison had consolidated roughly 200 small electric companies starting in 1930, while Centerior, formed in 1986, controlled Cleveland Electric Illuminating and Toledo Edison.

The combined company owned about 12,000 megawatts of generating capacity and served 2.2 million customers across northern and central Ohio and western Pennsylvania. It then grew by acquisition. The 2001 merger with GPU Inc., the former General Public Utilities, added Metropolitan Edison, Pennsylvania Electric, and Jersey Central Power & Light. The 2011 merger with Allegheny Energy brought Mon Power, Potomac Edison, and West Penn Power, extending the footprint into West Virginia, Maryland, and more of Pennsylvania.

Through the 2000s FirstEnergy ran both regulated utilities and a large competitive generation business, FirstEnergy Solutions, which owned coal and nuclear plants including the Davis-Besse and Perry reactors in Ohio. Deregulation squeezed the competitive side. FirstEnergy Solutions filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018 and emerged as the independent company Energy Harbor in 2020, leaving FirstEnergy a fully regulated utility.

The defining event of the modern company arrived in July 2020, when federal prosecutors arrested Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and charged a racketeering conspiracy centered on House Bill 6, a law directing about $1.3 billion in ratepayer subsidies to two nuclear plants then owned by FirstEnergy's former competitive unit. Prosecutors found that FirstEnergy had funneled roughly $60 million through a dark money group tied to Householder. The company fired CEO Chuck Jones and other executives that October.

In July 2021 FirstEnergy signed a three-year deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, admitting to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and paying a $230 million penalty. Householder was convicted in 2023 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The SEC added a $100 million penalty in 2024 for misleading investors, and in 2025 Ohio regulators ordered the company's Ohio utilities to refund $186 million and pay $64 million in forfeitures tied to the investigation.

Brian X. Tierney became CEO in 2023 and added the chairman role in 2025. Under his leadership the company has repositioned itself as a regulated investment story, with base rate wins in Pennsylvania, transmission rate base growth near 11%, and a five-year capital program of $36 billion announced alongside 2025 results.

FirstEnergy publishes annual sustainability and climate reporting covering emissions, grid modernization, and energy efficiency programs. Its regulated generation is concentrated in West Virginia coal units, and the company has committed to a 30% reduction in Scope 1 carbon emissions by 2030 from a 2019 baseline, with carbon neutrality aspirations for 2050.

Post-2020, ethics rather than environment is the company's central ESG issue. The deferred prosecution agreement imposed a court-monitored compliance program, and the company has overhauled political spending disclosure, lobbying controls, and board oversight. Independent certification frameworks such as B Corp do not apply to a regulated utility of this type.

The Ohio HB6 bribery scandal is the defining controversy. Between 2017 and 2019, FirstEnergy and its affiliates funneled roughly $60 million through Generation Now, a 501(c)(4) tied to House Speaker Larry Householder, to pass and defend a law subsidizing nuclear plants owned by its former subsidiary.

In July 2021 the company entered a deferred prosecution agreement and paid $230 million in criminal penalties. In 2024 it paid $100 million to settle SEC charges that it misled investors. In 2025 the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio ordered $186 million in customer refunds and $64 million in civil forfeitures. Householder is serving a 20-year federal sentence, and former FirstEnergy executives face ongoing state charges.

Beyond the scandal, the company manages ordinary regulatory friction: contested rate cases, reliability questions after storms, and criticism from consumer advocates over bill increases. These are routine for a multi-state utility.