FirstEnergy buying PPM windpower in Pennsylvania

FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE) is entering into a 23-year agreement to purchase the 34.5 megawatts of output from the Casselman Wind Power Project being developed in Pennsylvania, by PPM Energy.

Construction for the Casselman project, located about 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh near the towns of Meyersdale and Rockwood in Somerset County, will begin this summer and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2007. It is expected to feature 23 wind turbines rated at 1.5 MW each.

"This agreement will bring our total amount of wind power contracts to 464.5 MW - positioning FirstEnergy to become one of the largest renewable energy suppliers in our region," said Guy Pipitone, senior vice president, Operations Strategy & Development, of FirstEnergy.

The Casselman project - which encompasses almost 2,000 acres - was awarded a grant from the PA DEP because it will utilize several hundred acres of reclaimed surface mine areas. In addition, the project received a production incentive grant from the TRF Sustainable Development Fund.

The actual footprint of the turbines uses less than two percent of the total acreage. It is expected to create approximately 60 jobs during construction and three to four full-time jobs in the community once it becomes operational.

FirstEnergy's seven electric utility operating companies comprise the nation's fifth largest investor-owned electric system, serving 4.5 million customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Its generation subsidiaries control nearly 14,000 megawatts of capacity.

PPM Energy now has more than 2,000 MW of wind energy in operation or under construction. PPM is a division of ScottishPower's (NYSE: SPI).

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