Operator
Operator
Good afternoon. My name is Nelson and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the FirstEnergy Corp's First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers remarks there will be a question-and-answer period. (Operator Instructions). Thank you. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host Kurt Turosky, Director of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin your conference. Kurt Turosky – Director of Investor Relations: Thank you, Nelson. During this conference call, we will make various forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements with respect to revenues, earnings, performance, strategies, prospects and other aspects of the business of FirstEnergy Corp are based on current expectations that are subject to risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. Please read the Safe Harbor statement contained in the consolidated report to the financial community, which was released earlier today and is also available on our website under the Earnings Release link. Reconciliation's to GAAP for the non-GAAP earnings measure, we will be referring to today, are also contained in that report as well as on the investor information section of our website at www.firstenergycorp.com\ir. .: I'll now turn the call over to Rich. Rich Marsh – Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer: Thanks Kurt and good afternoon everybody, thanks to being with us today. I will go ahead and start our call this afternoon with an overview of our first quarter financial results and some recent regulatory activities then I will turn call over to Tony to give some update on legislation in Ohio and Pennsylvania. As I go through our first quarter results, it might be helpful for you to refer to our consolidated report to the financial community that we issued earlier this morning. Earnings on a GAAP basis in the first quarter were $0.91 per share compared to $0.92 per share in the same period last year. Excluding special items, normalized non-GAAP earnings were $0.88 per share, and that’s unchanged from the first quarter of 2007. This year's normalized non-GAAP earnings exclude the effect of the $0.06 per share gain on the sale of non-core assets, and the $0.03 per share last related to the impairment of securities and our nuclear decommissioning trust. These results exceeded during this guidance with previously provided for the first quarter, provide its good start to the year. Kilowatt hour deliveries to our distribution system were 1% higher than in the same period last year. Heating degree days were 1% below the prior year, but 2% above normal. Residential and Commercial deliveries both increased 2%, while industrial deliveries declined about 1%. The key drivers of the quarter’s results included a $0.23 per share increase in generation revenues primarily resulting from higher wholesale and retail prices. A $0.02 per share increase in distribution delivery revenues due to the higher residential and commercial sales volumes, $0.01 per share reduction and generation average cost $0.01 per share reduction in pension expense, a $0.02 per share decrease in financing cost attributable to lower interest rates and reduce short term borrowings. And the $0.03 per share benefit related to the reduction in common shares outstanding following the accelerated repurchase of 14.4 million shares in March of last year. Partially offsetting these factors were $0.13 per share increase in fuel cost due to a 5% increase in generation output. A higher proportion of generation mix and increase coal and transportation past. A $0.06 per share increase in purchase power expense mainly due to higher market prices. A $0.03 per share increase in energy delivery expense due to storm related restoration activities. A $0.01 per share increase in depreciation expenses resulting from our growing asset base. A $0.02 per share increase in general taxes primarily due to higher payroll on property taxes, as well as higher Pennsylvania gross receipt tax, and a $0.06 decrease in investment income from our corporate-owned life insurance portfolio. This resulted from the unfavorable equity market conditions during the quarter is evidenced by decline of almost 10% in the S&P 500 index during the period. Switching to our financing activities. At the beginning of the year we have about $530 million of taxes of securities in the auction rate market. And following turmoil in that sector we decided to require and then reissue the securities. We converted all of our auction rate banks to weekly rate mode, we purchase these securities on their conversion dates. This activity was funded through short term borrowings. We plan to issue the securities in either afixed rate or variable rate mode over the balance of the year depending on market conditions. On April 22nd we started this process by successfully remarketing $73.5 million of Met-Ed and Penelec PCLBs and a variable rate mode supported by bank level of credit. And in light of the disruptions in the credit market during the first quarter I just wanted to assure you that our liquidity position remains strong as we've finished the period worth $1.7 billion of available underarm capacity. Within I will touch briefly on some ongoing regulatory matters on Ohio and Pennsylvania, and I will serve with our planning distribution right cases on Ohio where we filed request as June to increase rates for our three Ohio operating companies by $332 million annually. Eventually in public hearings as well as the legal briefing process have been completed in these cases, we expect the public utilities commission of Ohio that issued an order in the second or third quarter of this year. During the hearings the PUCO staff submitted testimony recommending a rate increase of 114 million to 132 million. The biggest difference between these amount and the company request relate to matters that the staff suggest would be addressed in separate future rate proceedings and those items total about a $115 million,$115 million in annual rates. Turning to Pennsylvania our Penn Power utility receives approval from PPUC for its power procurement plant for default service generation supply. This plan encompasses the period June 1st of this year to May 31st of 2011, and is the second default service period for Penn Power and is transitioning to competitive generation market at the beginning of 2007. The commission approved the use of multiple request for proposal to procure a load following for requirement contracts for residential and small commercial customer the default service generation supply. A large commercial and industrial customer default service generation supply will use g our pricing. During the first quarter the year two RFPs were conducted in the proof for the first 12 months supply for the small commercial loan. The average price of the wing bids $80 49 per megawatt hour prior to lying losses administrative fees gross receipt taxes. This represent slight increase to the existing pricing. The first of two RFPs for residential default service supply fee was completed in Apri, and the second RFP for residential customer is schedule for May 14 after which Penn Power expects commission to approve the new rates that would go into effect on June 1st. Both RFPs consist of trenches for the 12 and 24 months supply periods and subsequent RFPs will be conducted during the remainder of the three year default service period. Also in Pennsylvania we filed annual updates to Met-Ed and Penelec transmission service riders covering the period June 1st 2008 to May 31st 2009. The proposed riders include collection of under recover transmission cost incurred from January 2007 to March of 2008 and also reflect projected transmission cost for the period June 2008 to May 2009. To mitigate these impacts to customers net at propose transition that would recover past cost plus carrying charges as also portion of the projected cost plus carrying charges due to new transmission rider. The remaining portion of the projected cost carrying charges would be deferred for recovery by the end of 2010 through future transmission riders. And I will now turn the call over to Tony for an update on our legislative matters. Tony?