2020 Annual Report
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20FOCUSED ON OUR FUTURE 20 ANNUAL REPORT 2020 FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS • Paid annualized dividend of $1.56 per common share consistent with dividend policy. • Provided three-year dividend growth: $1.44 in 2018; $1.52 in 2019; $1.56 in 2020. • Invested $1.15 billion in 2020 to modernize our transmission system as part of our Energizing the Future initiative. • Invested $1.76 billion in our distribution system in 2020. FINANCIALS AT A GLANCE 2018 2019 2020 TOTAL REVENUES (in millions) $11,261 $11,035 $10,790 BASIC EARNINGS PER SHARE (GAAP) $1.99 $1.70 $1.99 OPERATING EARNINGS PER SHARE (non-GAAP*) $2.59 $2.58 $2.39 DIVIDENDS PAID PER COMMON SHARE $1.44 $1.52 $1.56 CAPITAL TRANSMISSION DISTRIBUTION SPEND RATE BASE RATE BASE (in $ millions) (in $ millions) (in $ millions) 2,986 2,992 2,983 3,000 8,000 16,000 7,585 15,510 6,945 7,000 14,820 15,000 2,500 6,313 6,000 13,878 14,000 2,000 5,000 13,000 1,500 4,000 12,000 3,000 1,000 11,000 2,000 500 10,000 1,000 0 0 0 2018 2018 2018 2019 2020 2019 2020 2019 2020 * See non-GAAP Financial Measures information on the inside back cover of this report. On the cover: Alex Greathouse, line worker, installs automated reclosing devices on Penn Power lines to help limit the frequency and duration of service interruptions for customers. A MESSAGE TO OUR SHAREHOLDERS In 2020, our company continued its strong We are making significant changes in our approach operational performance and advanced our to governmental affairs engagement, as well. Our regulated growth strategy. We also established new participation in the political process will be much goals for key areas of our business that support more limited than it has been in the past, with closer our mission to be a forward-thinking electric utility alignment to our strategic goals and more robust powered by a diverse team of employees committed oversight and disclosure of the company’s advocacy to making customers’ lives brighter, the environment going forward. better and our communities stronger. Our Board and senior leadership team also remain At the same time, we encountered unprecedented focused on advancing our strategy and business challenges. Our employees demonstrated flexibility priorities in a way that reflects the culture we are and resiliency in adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic working to instill at FirstEnergy. Toward that end, while continuing to serve our customers safely. our FE Forward initiative, launched in December Our company, employees and communities also 2020, is designed to re-evaluate our policies, confronted the impact of ongoing racial injustice practices and processes and make improvements and social unrest across the country. to how we work and make decisions – including ensuring that we foster trust, transparency and In addition, our Board of Directors implemented integrity. By optimizing operations, accelerating our significant senior leadership changes last year, digital transformation and improving productivity, including the removal of five executives, as a result FE Forward intends to enhance customer and of an internal investigation related to the ongoing Steven E. Strah shareholder value and improve our credit profile. President and CEO governmental investigations into FirstEnergy. These This effort is expected to transform FirstEnergy in critical changes, among other decisive actions, a way that provides near-term value while opening enabled us to begin the process of rebuilding trust new opportunities for long-term growth. with our stakeholders and placed FirstEnergy on the right path forward. Over the past year, our company has rallied in response to the pandemic, and our employees – As part of the changes to our senior leadership working remotely and in the field – have excelled in team, I was named acting CEO in October 2020, their new circumstances. In addition, our business and then I was named CEO and elected as a model and rate structure continued to provide member of the Board in March 2021. I am honored stability during the pandemic and economic by the Board’s confidence in me. Since beginning as slowdown. We have not experienced significant a meter reader with The Illuminating Company years disruptions in our supply chain or workforce, and ago, I have worked in many different areas of our we successfully completed approximately $3 billion business, and I care deeply about our employees in transmission and distribution investments last and the future of this company. year as we continued our service reliability and Under my leadership, and with guidance from our modernization programs to benefit customers. Board and support from our Executive Council, Our long-term regulated growth strategy is proving we are intently focused on fostering a culture of successful, and the fundamental drivers of our compliance, ethics and integrity. As part of that business remain intact. Our strong execution of effort, we have appointed strong new leaders, both this strategy continued in 2020, and we remain at the board and executive levels, who are actively confident about the significant investment engaged with our existing leaders in creating an opportunities intended to drive solid earnings and environment where not only our words, but our growth in the years ahead. actions, align with our core values and behaviors. We are also working to centralize and strengthen our We are proactively addressing a range of compliance model and ensure that every employee uncertainties created by the ongoing Department understands their responsibility to consistently act of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission in accordance with our core values and behaviors investigations by implementing a comprehensive and to speak up if they see inappropriate behavior plan to support near-term financial resiliency and anywhere in the organization. flexibility. This includes work being done as part 1 JCP&L line worker, Vanessa Patterson, helps deliver reliable electricity to our customers. of FE Forward to generate capital Our efforts to achieve these and other new extending lines and building new supporting expenditure efficiencies and working capital goals will lay the groundwork for continued infrastructure in our Met-Ed service area. improvements and enable a more strategic growth in the coming years. We plan to invest up to $1.2 billion in 2021 approach to operating expenditures. We to continue reliability improvements on recently shared details about what this INVESTING IN OUR ELECTRIC our transmission system. Future initiatives program is projected to achieve over the INFRASTRUCTURE will increase network automation, add next several years, including $250 million We continue to strengthen our transmission operational flexibility and make the energy in working capital improvements by 2022 and distribution systems through significant grid more resilient – all of which are key to and $300 million in annualized capital investments designed to improve reliability reliably supporting increased renewable expenditure efficiencies by 2024. We look and support our customers’ evolving energy sources and enabling a clean energy forward to updating you on our progress in energy needs. future. As we make these investments, we’re the coming months. targeting a 20% reduction in Transmission For instance, we’re upgrading and Looking ahead, our updated strategic plan Outage Frequency on 100 kV-and-above modernizing our transmission system will guide our efforts to transform FirstEnergy lines by 2025, compared to our 2019 through our multibillion-dollar Energizing into a more innovative, diverse and baseline. the Future program. These infrastructure sustainable company. The plan encompasses investments are driving measurable To support continued investments in our company goals targeting improvements performance improvements for our transmission system, we filed an application in many key areas of our business and customers, including a 39% reduction with FERC to move to forward-looking supporting our vision for the future. For through 2020 in equipment-related formula rates for our transmission assets in example, we’re building a more diverse and transmission outages on our ATSI system, the Allegheny Power System zone, effective inclusive workplace with the aspirational which serves our three utility companies in January 1, 2021. This includes transmission goal of increasing the racial and ethnic Ohio and our Penn Power utility in western assets in our West Penn Power, Mon Power diversity of our workforce and leadership by Pennsylvania. Key Energizing the Future and Potomac Edison territories. In addition, 30% by 2025. We’re also creating a more projects in 2020 included rebuilding and we created a new standalone transmission sustainable energy future by working toward revitalizing sections of our transmission company, Keystone Appalachian carbon neutrality by 2050 and an interim system in our Ohio Edison and Penn Transmission Company (KATCo), and filed for 30% reduction in greenhouse gases within Power regions, improving system voltage forward-looking formula rates, also effective our direct control by 2030. and capacity in our JCP&L territory, and January 1, 2021. These rate filings were 2 accepted by FERC on December 31, 2020, subject to refund, pending state to enhance service reliability and minimize the impact of further hearing and settlement proceedings. The approvals mean that outages for over 2 million Pennsylvania customers. Key projects 100% of our transmission investments are now recovered through include installing new automated reclosing devices that help limit formula rates. We plan to seek regulatory approval to transfer certain the frequency, duration and scope of service interruptions; replacing transmission assets from West Penn Power and Potomac Edison to hundreds of miles of existing power lines with larger, durable the new KATCo affiliate at an appropriate time in the future. wire designed to withstand tree debris and severe weather; and implementing new substation fencing to deter climbing animals and On the distribution side of our business, we are strengthening protect against equipment interference that can cause outages.