We base the corporate credit rating of West Penn Power Co. (WPP) on a consolidated analysis of its parent, FirstEnergy Corp. The parent company's transformation from an integrated electric utility holding company to a model that encompasses regulated electric T&D operations and unregulated merchant electric generation and marketing activities. While we no longer consider the company as fully integrated, we regard the two segments as equally important to the company and as contributing equally to the consolidated credit profile. The utilities and the generating plants that were formerly rate-based assets retain a strategic connection. The 2011 merger with Allegheny Energy Inc. has resulted in a slightly weaker business risk profile and could slow efforts to strengthen the company's financial position
