FirstEnergy Corp.

AKRON, Ohio, March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) announced today that its subsidiary, FirstEnergy Solutions (FES), has signed its largest green supply contract with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), a leader in pursuing environmentally sustainable practices within the health care industry.

UPMC has purchased approximately 24,000 renewable energy certificates (RECs) of FirstEnergy Solutions' MixedGreens(TM) product as a source of a portion of their electric generation. This agreement represents 10 percent of UPMC's electricity load in the Pittsburgh area.

One REC is produced when a renewable energy generator produces one megawatt-hour of electricity. When a company purchases RECs, it is choosing to support the development of renewable electric generation.

MixedGreens is a combination of renewable resources, including wind, biomass, geothermal electric, photovoltaic and hydroelectric.

"We have 145 megawatts of capacity available to us from wind farms in western Pennsylvania, with another 70 megawatts expected to go online this year," says Arthur Yuan, vice president of Sales and Marketing for FES. "Our MixedGreens energy products are a great way for customers to support environmentally friendly energy resources."

"At UPMC, we strive to enhance the quality of life for our patients and the communities in which we live and work. Our agreement with FirstEnergy Solutions serves as another example of our commitment to advancing environmentally sustainable practices, while supporting research and education focused on environmental links to disease," says Allison Robinson, director of UPMC's environmental initiatives.

For instance, the health system recently created a $5-million "green action fund" to support environmentally friendly projects across the health system. It's also building one of the first green pediatric hospitals, supporting significant paper and equipment recycling programs, and removing mercury-containing items from its hospitals. UPMC is the premier health system in western Pennsylvania and one of the most renowned academic medical centers in the United States. Widely recognized for its innovations in patient care, research, technology and health care management, UPMC has transformed the economic landscape in western Pennsylvania. The region's largest employer, with 48,000 employees and nearly $7 billion in revenue, UPMC comprises 20 hospitals, 400 outpatient sites and doctors' offices, retirement and long-term care facilities, an insurance plan with more than 1 million members, and commercial and international ventures. About 5,000 physicians are affiliated with UPMC, including nearly 2,500 employed physicians. For more information, go to www.upmc.com.

FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company headquartered in Akron, Ohio. Its subsidiaries and affiliates are involved in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, as well as energy management and other energy-related services. Its seven electric utility operating companies comprise the nation's fifth largest investor-owned electric system, based on 4.5 million customers served within a 36,100-square-mile area of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey; and its generation subsidiaries control more than 14,000 megawatts of capacity.

Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements based on information currently available to management. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. These statements include declarations regarding our, or our management's, intents, beliefs and current expectations. These statements typically contain, but are not limited to, the terms "anticipate," "potential," "expect," "believe," "estimate" and similar words. Forward-looking statements involve estimates, assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially due to the speed and nature of increased competition in the electric utility industry and legislative and regulatory changes affecting how generation rates will be determined following the expiration of existing rate plans in Ohio and Pennsylvania, economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and margins, changes in markets for energy services, changing energy and commodity market prices, replacement power costs being higher than anticipated or inadequately hedged, the continued ability of FirstEnergy's regulated utilities to collect transition and other charges or to recover increased transmission costs, maintenance costs being higher than anticipated, other legislative and regulatory changes including revised environmental requirements and possible greenhouse gas emissions regulation, the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of the capital expenditures needed to, among other things, implement the Air Quality Compliance Plan (including that such amounts could be higher than anticipated) or levels of emission reductions related to the Consent Decree resolving the New Source Review litigation or other potential regulatory initiatives, adverse regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes (including, but not limited to, the revocation of necessary licenses or operating permits and oversight by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission including, but not limited to, the Demand for Information issued to FENOC on May 14, 2007) as disclosed in our SEC filings, the timing and outcome of various proceedings before the PUCO (including, but not limited to, the Distribution Rate Cases and the generation supply plan filing for the Ohio Companies and the successful resolution of the issues remanded to the PUCO by the Supreme Court of Ohio regarding the Rate Stabilization Plan and the Rate Certainty Plan, including the deferral of fuel costs) and the PPUC (including the resolution of the Petitions for Review filed with the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania with respect to the transition rate plan for Met-Ed and Penelec), the continuing availability of generating units and their ability to continue to operate at or near full capacity, the ability to comply with applicable state and federal reliability standards, the ability to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic goals (including employee workforce initiatives), the ability to improve electric commodity margins and to experience growth in the distribution business, changing market conditions that could affect the value of assets held in our nuclear decommissioning trust fund, pension fund and other trust funds, the ability to access the public securities and other capital markets and the cost of such capital, the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in our SEC filings, and other similar factors. The foregoing review of factors should not be construed as exhaustive. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all such factors, nor can we assess the impact of any such factor on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any current intention to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.

CONTACT: Ellen Raines, FirstEnergy, +1-330-384-5808; or Wendy Zellner, UPMC, +1-412-647-3555