FirstEnergy’s Polar Vortex Customer Settlement Gets Court Nod

A $12 million class settlement between FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. and a group of customers claiming they were overcharged for electricity during the 2014 “polar vortex” received preliminary approval by an Ohio bankruptcy court.

The agreement, filed last month in the utility’s Chapter 11 case, “appears to be sufficiently fair, reasonable and adequate,” and “administratively cost-effective and consistent” with the company’s interests, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio said Dec. 24.

The settlement, which is subject to a final fairness hearing in May, allows FirstEnergy to avoid litigation over extra fees it imposed on customers in January ...