The E Group Named 2011 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year - Service Product Provider

AKRON, Ohio, March 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The E Group, a division of FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. (FES), has been selected as one of the 2011 ENERGY STAR® award winners for Partner of the Year – Service Product Provider for its commitment and dedication to helping clients further the energy performance of their buildings and promoting the benefits of the ENERGY STAR program.  FES is a subsidiary of Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE).

"The E Group is a leader in showing its customers how they can help protect our environment while saving energy and money," said Elizabeth Craig, Acting Director of EPA's Office of Atmospheric Programs.  "The E Group's creative solutions are a model for fighting climate change through greater energy efficiency.  We look to these winners to provide us energy efficiency leadership now and in the years to come." 

"We are honored to be recognized as a 2011 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year," said Tony Banks, vice president of Marketing Policies and The E Group.  "For more than a decade, The E Group has maintained a strong commitment to providing our clients with smart energy management programs and services as well as strategic tracking and measurement tools that produce both significant energy and financial savings."

The E Group provides energy management services to governmental, multi-site commercial and industrial clients across the United States – managing more than 165,000 client accounts and a total energy portfolio in excess of $1.2 billion.  The company's key achievements include:

• Increasing the number of client buildings using automated benchmarking to 4,400 – an increase of 300 percent in just 12 months.  At least half of its clients are benchmarking at least one building in Portfolio Manager, an interactive energy management tool that allows clients to track and assess energy consumption across the entire portfolio of buildings.
• Helping 76 client buildings earn the ENERGY STAR rating and more than 130 buildings improve their energy performance rating by at least 10 points in 2010.
• Recruiting two Fortune 500 companies – a large banking company and a national retailer – to partner with ENERGY STAR.
• Enabling clients and utility affiliates to reduce electric load and avoid costs through a list of potential energy-saving recommendations after on-site audits.
• Encouraging clients to incorporate ENERGY STAR into their Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and to use ENERGY STAR to help quantify the efficiencies they implemented as a result of state or local government mandates.

ENERGY STAR was introduced by the U.S. EPA in 1992 as a voluntary, market-based partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants associated with energy use.  Today, the ENERGY STAR label can be found on more than 60 kinds of products as well as new homes and buildings.  With the help of ENERGY STAR, Americans saved $18 billion on their utility bills and prevented greenhouse gas equivalent to those of 34 million cars last year alone.  Products, homes and buildings that have earned the ENERGY STAR label prevent emissions by meeting strict energy-efficiency specifications set by the U.S. EPA.  For more information, visit www.energystar.gov.

The E Group is a trusted business consultant to many of the nation's largest commercial and industrial companies. For additional information, visit www.e-grp.com, or call The E Group at 888-809-8436.

FES provides competitive electric generation supply and other energy-related products and services, and is a licensed supplier in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan and Illinois.  

FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its ten electric distribution companies comprise the nation's largest investor-owned electric system.  Its diverse generating fleet features non-emitting nuclear, scrubbed baseload coal, natural gas, and pumped-storage hydro and other renewables, and has a total generating capacity of approximately 24,000 megawatts.

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.