- PPL (utility)
Infobox_Company
company_name = PPL Corporation
company_
company_type = Public (NYSE|PPL)| company_slogan = We'll Be There When The Light Goes On | foundation = 1920
location_city = Allentown, Pennsylvania
location_country = USA
key_people =
num_employees = 12,620 (2006)
industry =Electric Utility
revenue = profitUS$ 6.899 Billion (2006)
net_income = profitUS$ 865 Million (2006)
homepage = [http://www.pplweb.com www.pplweb.com]PPL, formerly known as PP&L or
Pennsylvania Power and Light, is anelectric company headquartered inAllentown, Pennsylvania , USA. It currently controls over 11,000megawatt s (MW) of electrical generating capacity in the United States, primarily in Pennsylvania andMontana , and delivers electricity to customers in the United Kingdom.The majority of PPL's power plants burn
coal ,oil , ornatural gas . PPL recently has invested heavily in peaking plants. These plants require few operators and have a high profit margin due to their ability to rapidly come online when the price of electricity spikes. PPL's largest plant is theSusquehanna Steam Electric Station , a 2,352 MWnuclear power plant PPL Susquehanna, located on its namesake river seven miles northeast ofBerwick, Pennsylvania .The company is publicly-traded on the
New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol nyse|PPL.PPL is the seventh largest employer in the
Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania [ [http://www.lehighvalley.org/pdf/Employ_Largest.pdf List of Largest employers in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley] ] . The company's headquarters is based in thePPL Building , the tallest building in Allentown.Company history
PPL was founded in 1920 out of a merger of eight smaller Pennsylvania utilities. It confined its activities to central and northeastern Pennsylvania for several decades until
deregulation of electrical utilities in the 1990s encouraged PPL to purchase assets in other states. The largest of these transactions was PPL's 1998 purchase of 13 plants from Montana Power, orchestrated by Montana Power as part of its ill-fated transformation into the now-defuncttelecommunications company Touch America. This added over 2,500 MW of capacity and was the largest expansion in PPL's history.PPL's 2004 income was $5.8 billion, with net income of $698 million, making it number 344 on 2005's
Fortune 500 list.Outreach Programs
PPL's workforce is heavily slanted toward retirment age. Because of this, PPL currently employs a large number of summer interns to try to develop relations with new workers before they graduate college. PPL hired more than 100 interns during the 2006 summer. The company also donates money or equipment to local organizations, notably fire departments. This is justified by the company as many of their plants have a high fire risk.
PPL Building
The PPL Building (more popularly referred to by its original moniker, the PP&L Building) is the tallest building in Allentown. The building has 23 stories and is 322 feet tall, making it the second tallest in the Lehigh Valley only to the
Martin Tower . It is located at the intersection of Hamilton and Ninth Streets in the downtown area of the city.The building is often uniquely illuminated at night, especially during the
Christmas season. During the 1960s, Pennsylvania Power & Light Company supported the local United Fund community fund drive program by using the building's brightly lit windows at night to spell out the abbreviation "U.F." to remind area residents to contribute to the fund drive.History of the PPL Building
The PPL Building was built from 1926 to 1928. It was built by the PPL corporation and to this day has been the headquarters of the company. The building was designed by architect and skyscraper pioneer Harvey Corbett (who would later have a hand in designing New York's
Rockefeller Center ) and was supervised by his assistant,Wallace Harrison (who would later designLincoln Center ,LaGuardia Airport and the U.N. Headquarters Building). The building exterior features bas reliefs byAlexander Archipenko . In 1930, the PP&L Building was named the "best example of a modern office building" by "Encyclopedia Britannica ", and also featured the world's fastestelevator .The Plaza at PPL Center
PPL recently constructed a platinum level LEED Certified office building, making use of sustainable development principles, across the street from its original PPL Building.
References
External links
* [http://www.pplweb.com PPL Official Web Site] .
* [http://www.nndb.com/company/646/000098352/ PPL at NNDB] .
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