First Energy reconsiders light-bulb plan

By David Skolnick

FirstEnergy wants a waiver on meeting its energy usage reduction this year.

YOUNGSTOWN — FirstEnergy has 3.75 million energy-efficient light bulbs in Goodwill Industries warehouses in Cleveland and Canton — and company officials say it will be a few years before the bulbs are out of there.

The compact fluorescent light [CFL] bulbs were the source of much controversy last month. That’s when it became known that FirstEnergy planned to meet a state mandate to reduce energy use by 0.3 percent this year by distributing two light bulbs to each of its customers, charging $21.60 over three years for the pair that cost the company $1.57 for each bulb.

The bulbs cost about $6 million.

Public backlash and pressure from state officials led to FirstEnergy’s decision to cancel the light-bulb distribution plan.

“It became very apparent very quickly it was a program our customers didn’t like,” said Ellen S. Raines, FirstEnergy’s media relations director.

So now what is the utility company going to do to reach that state-mandated energy- use reduction?

Ask for a delay, said Raines and Michael J. Dowling, the company’s vice president of communications.

The company expects to have a program in place to reduce energy usage but will have a difficult time reaching the state-mandated 0.3 percent reduction this year, Dowling and Raines told The Vindicator on Friday.

FirstEnergy wants a waiver from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio for the 0.3 percent reduction with a plan to roll that into its state-mandated 0.5 percent energy usage reduction for 2010, Raines said.

If the PUCO refuses, FirstEnergy could be fined $10,000 each day it fails to comply with the state law, Raines said.

“By the end of the year we’ll have [an energy-usage reduction] program,” Dowling said.

That program would permit FirstEnergy customers to select from a variety of options that would reduce energy use, including CFL bulbs, window insulation and appliance buybacks, such as receiving $100 to replace a customer’s current refrigerator with a new, energy-efficient one, Dowling said.

The program would be voluntary, he said, but the company would seek permission from the PUCO to charge its customers for money it will lose under the energy-efficiency proposals, he said.

As for the controversial CFL plan, Dowling said company officials “never liked the giveaway, but it was all we could do to meet the mandate.”

FirstEnergy asked the PUCO to include energy-efficiency initiatives companies in its area had implemented going back two years to meet the 0.3 percent requirement, Dowling said.

The PUCO didn’t respond to the request, Dowling said, so “we had to come up with something fast and that was the light-bulb program.”

The CFL bulbs in the two warehouses will eventually go to homes of FirstEnergy customers, Raines and Dowling said. The light bulbs could be sold to customers and/or given away through social service agencies, they said.

“It will take years to get rid of them,” Dowling said.

skolnick@vindy.com