Asset Impairments

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Goodwill and Intangible Assets Disclosure [Abstract]

ASSET IMPAIRMENTS

Property, Plant, and Equipment

On July 22, 2016, FirstEnergy and FES announced its intent to exit operations of the Bay Shore Unit 1 generating station (136 MWs) by October 1, 2020, through either sale or deactivation and to deactivate Units 1-4 of the W. H. Sammis generating station (720 MWs) by May 31, 2020. As a result, FirstEnergy recorded a non-cash pre-tax impairment charge of $647 million ($517 million - FES) in the second quarter of 2016. PJM and the Independent Market Monitor have approved the W.H. Sammis Units 1-4 and Bay Shore Unit 1 deactivations. In addition, FirstEnergy and FES recorded termination and settlement costs on fuel contracts of approximately $58 million (pre-tax) in the second quarter of 2016 resulting from plant retirements and deactivations, which is included in the caption of Fuel in the Consolidated Statement of Income (Loss).

As disclosed in Note 1, Organization and Basis of Presentation, in November 2016, FirstEnergy announced that it had begun a strategic review of its competitive operations as it transitions to a fully regulated utility with a target to implement its exit from competitive operations by mid-2018.

Although FirstEnergy is targeting mid-2018 to exit from competitive operations, the options for the remaining portion of CES' generation are still uncertain, but could include one or more of the following:


•	Legislative or regulatory solutions for generation assets that recognize their environmental or energy security benefits,


•	Additional asset sales and/or plant deactivations,


•	Restructuring FES debt with its creditors, and/or


•	Seeking protection under U.S. bankruptcy laws for FES and possibly FENOC.

Once a plan is finalized, FE’s implementation of that plan may result in long-lived asset impairment charges, exit related losses and costs, contingencies, and reserves against deferred tax assets that may not be realizable.

As part of assessing the viability of strategic alternatives, FirstEnergy determined that the carrying value of long-lived assets of the competitive business were not recoverable, specifically given FirstEnergy’s target to implement its exit from competitive operations by mid-2018, significantly before the end of the original useful lives, and the anticipated cash flows over this shortened period. As a result, CES recorded a non-cash pre-tax impairment charge of $9,218 million ($8,082 million at FES) in the fourth quarter of 2016 to reduce the carrying value of certain assets to their estimated fair value, including long-lived assets, such as generating plants and nuclear fuel, as well as other assets, such as materials and supplies.



	FE Consolidated						FES Consolidated
Impaired Asset	Net Book Value		Fair Value		Impairment		Net Book Value		Fair Value		Impairment
	(In millions)
Coal generation assets	$	4,672	$	614	$	4,058	$	3,699	$	435	$	3,264
Nuclear generation assets	4,842		460		4,382		4,825		460		4,365
Gas/Hydro generation assets	1,187		921		266		—		—		—
Nuclear Fuel	703		460		243		703		460		243
Other assets ⁽¹⁾	382		113		269		314		104		210
Totals	$	11,786	$	2,568	$	9,218	$	9,541	$	1,459	$	8,082


⁽¹⁾	Includes the impairment of materials and supplies ($142 million), AE Supply coal contracts ($55 million) and AE Supply's investment in OVEC ($37 million).

Key assumptions used in determining the impairment charges of long-lived assets included forward power price projections, the expected duration of ownership of the plants, environmental compliance costs and strategies, operating costs, and estimated sale proceeds. Those same cash flow assumptions, along with a discount rate were used to estimate the fair value of each plant. These assumptions are subject to a high degree of judgment and complexity. The fair value estimate of these long-lived assets was based on a combination of the income approach, which considers discounted cash flows, and corroboration with the market approach, which considers market comparisons for similar assets within the electric generation industry.

During 2015, FirstEnergy and FES recognized impairment charges of $42 million and $33 million, respectively, associated with certain transportation equipment and facilities. In order to conform to current year presentation, the charges were reclassified from Other operating expenses in the Consolidated Statement of Income (Loss) to Impairment of assets. The impairment charges are included within the Regulated Distribution segment ($8 million) and the CES segment ($34 million).

Goodwill

As a result of low capacity prices associated with the 2019/2020 PJM Base Residual Auction in May 2016, as well as its annual update to its fundamental long-term capacity and energy price forecast, FirstEnergy determined that an interim impairment analysis of the CES reporting unit’s goodwill was necessary during the second quarter of 2016.

Consistent with FirstEnergy’s annual goodwill impairment test, a discounted cash flow analysis was used to determine the fair value of the CES reporting unit for purposes of step one of the interim goodwill impairment test. Key assumptions incorporated into the CES discounted cash flow analysis requiring significant management judgment included the following:

•

Future Energy and Capacity Prices: Observable market information for near-term forward power prices, PJM auction results for near term capacity pricing, and a longer-term fundamental pricing model for energy and capacity that considered the impact of key factors such as load growth, plant retirements, carbon and other environmental regulations, and natural gas pipeline construction, as well as coal and natural gas pricing.


•	Retail Sales and Margin: CES' current retail targeted portfolio to estimate future retail sales volume as well as historical financial results to estimate retail margins.


•	Operating and Capital Costs: Estimated future operating and capital costs, including the estimated impact on costs of pending carbon and other environmental regulations, as well as costs associated with capacity performance reforms in the PJM market.


•	Discount Rate: A discount rate of 9.50%, based on selected comparable companies' capital structure, return on debt and return on equity.


•	Terminal Value: A terminal value of 7.0x earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization based on consideration of peer group data and analyst consensus expectations.

Based on the impairment analysis, FirstEnergy determined that the carrying value of goodwill exceeded its fair value and recognized a non-cash pre-tax impairment charge of $800 million ($23 million - FES) in the second quarter of 2016, which is included within the caption Impairment of assets in the Consolidated Statement of Income (Loss).

- Definition

The entire disclosure for the aggregate amount of goodwill and a description of intangible assets, which may include (a) for amortizable intangible assets (also referred to as finite-lived intangible assets), the carrying amount, the amount of any significant residual value, and the weighted-average amortization period, (b) for intangible assets not subject to amortization (also referred to as indefinite-lived intangible assets), the carrying amount, and (c) the amount of research and development assets acquired and written off in the period, including the line item in the income statement in which the amounts written off are aggregated, if not readily apparent from the income statement. Also discloses (a) for amortizable intangibles assets in total and by major class, the gross carrying amount and accumulated amortization, the total amortization expense for the period, and the estimated aggregate amortization expense for each of the five succeeding fiscal years, (b) for intangible assets not subject to amortization the carrying amount in total and by major class, and (c) for goodwill, in total and for each reportable segment, the changes in the carrying amount of goodwill during the period (including the aggregate amount of goodwill acquired, the aggregate amount of impairment losses recognized, and the amount of goodwill included in the gain (loss) on disposal of a reporting unit). If any part of goodwill has not been allocated to a reportable segment, discloses the unallocated amount and the reasons for not allocating. For each impairment loss recognized related to an intangible asset (excluding goodwill), discloses: (a) a description of the impaired intangible asset and the facts and circumstances leading to the impairment, (b) the amount of the impairment loss and the method for determining fair value, (c) the caption in the income statement or the statement of activities in which the impairment loss is aggregated, and (d) the segment in which the impaired intangible asset is reported. For each goodwill impairment loss recognized, discloses: (a) a description of the facts and circumstances leading to the impairment, (b) the amount of the impairment loss and the method of determining the fair value of the associated reporting unit, and (c) if a recognized impairment loss is an estimate not finalized and the reasons why the estimate is not final. May also disclose the nature and amount of any significant adjustments made to a previous estimate of an impairment loss.

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