PUCO Expands Audit Of FirstEnergy Ohio Utilities To Ensure Rates Do Not Include Charges For Stadium Naming Rights

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) announced today that it ordered its third-party auditor to examine utility rates paid by customers of the FirstEnergy Ohio utilities to ensure that such rates do not include charges for stadium naming rights.

A media representative from FirstEnergy Corp. provided the following statement concerning the matter:

"The cost of naming rights for the Browns stadium are incurred by the parent company, FirstEnergy Corp., and none of the costs are allocated to or incurred by any of our regulated utilities."

--- Statement from FirstEnergy Corp.

A PUCO attorney examiner directed the PUCO’s independent auditor to examine the rates charged by Cleveland Electric Illuminating, Ohio Edison, and Toledo Edison. Specifically, the auditor will expand the scope of its previous audit to include the review of whether or not the costs of the naming rights for FirstEnergy Stadium have been recovered from ratepayers of the utilities.

The audit report is due Nov. 19, 2021.

Promotional advertising is not eligible to be included in regulated utility rates, PUCO said

"Institutional and promotional advertising does not provide a direct primary benefit to customers, and the costs of such advertising should not be recovered in rates," the attorney examiner said in the entry

Case 20-1629-EL-RDR