Rate-regulated, monopolistic, and essential service Lower-risk transmission and distribution operations Affiliation with FirstEnergy Corp.'s competitive retail energy businesses, which ultimately depend on the market price of electricity Operates within a credit-supportive regulatory environment High historical consolidated leverage (debt to EBITDA of 5x for 2012) that we expect will improve to less than 4.5x Weak historical consolidated cash flow measures (funds from operations (FFO) to debt of 11.8% for 2012) that we expect will improve to greater than 14% Continued high annual consolidated capital spending that mostly consists of regulatory investments and environmental spending necessary to meet mandatory regulations Consolidated dividend minimally maintained at existing level Consolidated discretionary cash flow that we expect will continue to be negative over the next
