text: Since then, the development of horizontally drilled and hydraulic fractured gas wells has helped push down the price of a thousand cubic feet of natural gas, from more than $10 in the spring of 2008 to about $2.80 today. FirstEnergy's stock price tumbled from a high of more than $82 on June 1, 2008, to $32.80 at the end of trading on Tuesday.
  Jones said the company is not currently working with any lawmakers to write a re-regulation bill, but added that the first step toward returning to regulation is for the Public Utilities Commission to approve the company's pending rate case.
  That case includes a 15-year power purchase agreement to have FirstEnergy's local distribution companies Ohio Edison, the Illuminating Co. and Toledo Edison buy all of the power generated by the Davis-Besse nuclear plant and the coal-fired H.R. Sammis plant, at whatever it cost to generate.
  Those generating costs are currently higher than the wholesale price of power on the grid, where gas-fired power plants are the low-cost producers. The company admits the deal would cost customers money in the first three years but argues that over the 15-year lifetime of the contracts, it would save about $2 billion because natural gas won't remain at today's rock bottom prices.
  Critics of the plan, including the Ohio Consumers Counsel and the Northeast Ohio Public Utilities Council, or NOPEC, argue the deal would cost customers an extra $3 billion.
  However long-term prices play out, the plan would ensure that the company would not lose money by operating the plants. In filings before the PUCO, the company's experts have argued that without the special power purchase contract the company may be forced to close them.
  Sammis is the company's last Ohio coal-fired plant, said Jones, and its closing would force the company to build more long-distance transmission lines -- paid for by customers -- to bring power here from Pennsylvania and other states.
  Jones said he has talked to Gov. John Kasich about the company's current situation. "We talked very frankly about the the kind of tenuous position FirstEnergy is in and he asked me four times what can they do to help.
  "My answer four times was it's not your problem. It's my problem. The only thing I will ever ask you for is a fair chance to tell our story, a fair chance to have our case heard. And if we can't do it in a convincing manner, then shame on us.
  But, apart from the rate-settting case, the company did ask for something from the state just a year ago.
  It convinced legislators to remove the state mandate, in place since 2009, that forced power companies to help their customers use less power annually by buying energy efficiency technologies, and a parallel rule requiring power companies to sell an increasing percentage of "green power" annually.
  Senate Bill 310, which Kasich signed into law in June 2014, froze those mandates for two years while lawmakers decided what to do next.
  Jones said the energy efficiency programs FirstEnergy was forced to put in place were paid for by customers through higher rates, but benefited only those companies and consumers who could afford to buy new energy efficient products -- everything from new production line motors to new home appliances.
  He said another way has to be developed to pay for energy efficiency programs, but did not offer any specific plan.
  He said FirstEnergy is not opposed to renewable energy but believes that it must be "feathered in" slowly because wind and solar power production is not constant and therefore cannot be counted on.
  "If you want solar energy the most efficient way to get solar energy is to have the utility build it for you," he said. "And build it in 200-300-400 megawatt solar farms."
  A regulated power company could do that, Jones said, because it could add the costs to its rate base, just as the industry did for the first 85 years of its existence.
  
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  Irish IT professional services company Ammeon is to create 100 new high-skilled jobs in Dublin over the next 12 months.
  Ammeon, which specialises in IT-based transformation projects is expanding its DevOps and Cloud Centre of Excellence.
  The company is looking for both experienced engineers and graduates for a wide variety of high-value IT roles, with a focus on the latest cloud and DevOps skills. Of particular interest are candidates with experience in service delivery management, project management, cloud architectures and deployment.
  Ammeon employs over 200 people, with the majority based in the company’s Dublin headquarters and a smaller number in its UK offices. Last November the company hired an additional 30 IT professionals in the areas of software development, test automation and DevOps.
  Founded in 2003, the company has been growing rapidly in recent years, with turnover increasing by 25% year-on-year since 2009. Clients include global network equipment providers, communication service providers across EMEA, media, transportation and government organisations.
  “This is another very significant expansion of Ammeon’s workforce and capabilities and follows the creation of 30 new jobs last November,” Ammeon CEO Fred Jones said.
  “On the back of continued strong growth in demand for our cutting edge services, we are growing this DevOps and Cloud Centre of Excellence in Ireland. We are looking to add 100 talented engineers and IT professionals to help us make this happen.”
  “We have built the largest indigenous team of professional service consultants focused on IT-based transformation projects and we are at the beginning of a significant international expansion. We enable our customers deliver their software and services in a faster, more cost effective way to their customers.