By Rich Heidorn Jr.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — FirstEnergy and American Electric Power, both awaiting rulings from Ohio regulators on their requests for subsidies of their generation plants, may take different paths if they are unsuccessful.

The companies’ chief executives told analysts and investors at the Edison Electric Institute Financial Conference last week that they expect the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to rule on their requests for above-market power purchase agreements with their generators late this year or early in 2016.

CEO Nick Akins indicated the company would like to rid itself of its Ohio merchant fleet, which the company acknowledged in January it had put on the block. “We’re going to be a regulated utility. That’s what we’re good at,” he said, saying that investments in generation are riskier than those in transmission and distribution.

Akins said AEP and FirstEnergy are “on the same page” regarding the need for regulators’ help to improve the finances of their Ohio fleets.

But FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones said his company has no plans to sell or spin off its Ohio generation fleet.

“I come from a bias that generation, transmission and distribution together is the best way to serve customers. I understand the pressures on competitive generation. I think we’ve taken steps to position ours to where we’re cash flow positive each year for the next several years — through 2018.

“I don’t see [current] prices being the right prices to sell these tremendous base load assets. So my view is we’re going to stabilize it. We’re going to keep it cash flow positive, keep it delivering positive earnings contributions.

“We’re going to work with our regulatory in Ohio to try to get 3,200 more megawatts into a safer environment for the foreseeable future … and long term we’ll see where it goes. Right now [a sale or spinoff] is not the focus.”