PPL (utility)
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| PPL Corporation | |
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| Type | Public (NYSE: PPL) |
| Founded | 1920 |
| Headquarters | Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Industry | Electric Utility |
| Revenue | ▲US$6.899 Billion (2006) |
| Net income | ▲US$865 Million (2006) |
| Employees | 12,620 (2006) |
| Website | www.pplweb.com |
PPL, formerly known as PP&L or Pennsylvania Power and Light, is an electric company headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA. It currently controls over 11,000 megawatts (MW) of electrical generating capacity in the United States, primarily in Pennsylvania and Montana, and delivers electricity to customers in the United Kingdom and Latin America. *Update: PPL recently sold all subsidiaries in Latin America and it's Telcom subsidiary (PPL Telcom), and is now based solely in the US and UK(Known as Western Power Distribution, a transmission & distribution service provider, or EDC for short).
The majority of PPL's power plants burn coal, oil, or natural 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 the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, a 2,352 MW nuclear power plant PPL Susquehanna, located on its namesake river seven miles northeast of Berwick, 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 [1]. The company's headquarters is based in the PPL Building, the tallest building in Allentown.
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[edit] 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-defunct telecommunications 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 design Lincoln Center, LaGuardia Airport and the U.N. Headquarters Building). The building exterior features bas reliefs by Alexander 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 fastest elevator.
[edit] 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.
