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| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Electric utilities |
| Founded | June 4, 1920; 104 years ago (June 4, 1920) |
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
Key people | Vincent Sorgi, President and Chief Executive Officer |
| Revenue | US$7.9 billion (2022) |
1,374,000,000 United States dollar (2022)  | |
| US$756 million (2022) | |
Number of employees | more than 6,500 (2022) |
| Website | pplweb |
PPL Corporation is an energy company headquartered inAllentown, Pennsylvania in theLehigh Valley region of easternPennsylvania. The company is publicly traded on theNew York Stock Exchange asNYSE: PPL and is part of theS&P 500. As of 2022, the company had $7.9 billion in revenue, 6,500 employees, over $37 billion in assets, and serves 3.6 million customers.[1]
PPL Corporation was founded asPennsylvania Power & Light in 1920, the product of a merger of eight smaller Pennsylvania-based utility companies. It gradually extended its service territory to a crescent-shaped region of central andNortheastern Pennsylvania, stretching fromLancaster in central Pennsylvania through theLehigh Valley in eastern Pennsylvania, andScranton, andWilkes-Barre inNortheastern Pennsylvania.
In 1995, the company reorganized as a holding company. PP&L Resources was renamed PPL Corporation in 2000.
The company limited its operations to Pennsylvania untilderegulation of electrical utilities in the 1990s encouraged PPL to purchase assets in other states. The largest of these acquisitions was PPL's 1998 purchase of 13 plants fromMontana Power Company, which added over 2,500megawatts in capacity, representing the largest expansion in the company's history.
In 2010, PPL completed the acquisition of two regulatedKentucky-based utilities,Louisville Gas & Electric inLouisville andKentucky Utilities inLexington.
In February 2010, PPL Corporation purchased the naming rights to the venue originally known as PPL Park, the home stadium ofMajor League Soccer'sPhiladelphia Union, inChester, Pennsylvania. As part of the $25 million, 11-year deal, PPL EnergyPlus providedsustainable energy to PPL Park derived from other sources inPennsylvania.[2]
After PPL spun off its non-regulated generation business into the separateTalen Energy, the stadium naming rights were assumed by the spinoff company and the venue became known as Talen Energy Stadium.[3] In February 2020, the park was namedSubaru Park.[4]
In 2011, PPL completed the acquisition of two regulated regional electricity distribution companies in theUnited Kingdom. Along with two previously acquired regional electricity distribution companies, the company operates asWestern Power Distribution (WPD).
In 2014, the company's hydroelectric facilities were sold to NorthWestern.[5]
On June 6, 2014, PPL announced it would divest its electrical generation facilities to a newly formed company,Talen Energy.[6] On June 1, 2015, the Talen spinoff was completed, allowing PPL to concentrate on the transmission and distribution aspects of the electric utility business.[7]
In 2020, PPL initiated a formal process to sell WPD in order to position PPL as a purely U.S.-focused energy company and create additional shareowner value. This resulted in a March 18, 2021, announcement of agreements to sell WPD toNational Grid plc for £7.8 billion and acquire National Grid's Rhode Island electric and gas utility, the Narragansett Electric Company, for $3.8 billion.[8] The sale of WPD was completed on June 14, 2021.
The sale of the Narragansett Electric Company was completed on May 25, 2022, and Narragansett Electric was renamed Rhode Island Energy.[9]
In November 2019, William Spence, PPL's former chairman and chief executive officer, said that the company is focusing on building more advanced cleaner energy technologies and is also increasing its effort on a strategy known as "Energy Forward." The company has invested billions to improve infrastructure and technology in order to create a smarter, more reliable and resilient energy grid. In the third quarter of 2019, PPL completed a $470 million investment in replacing meters with "advanced" meters in Pennsylvania.[10]
PPL owns the naming rights to thePPL Center inAllentown, which hosts theLehigh Valley Phantoms of theAmerican Hockey League starting with the 2014 season. PPL paid an undisclosed sum over ten years.[11]
PPL's companies regularly rank high in customer satisfaction studies. PPL Electric Utilities, which serves 1.4 million customers in 29 counties in Pennsylvania, has received 30J.D. Power and Associates awards for customer satisfaction.
Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities, which serves 1.3 million customers in nearly 100 counties acrossKentucky andVirginia, has won 28J.D. Power awards for customer satisfaction.
For a century, the company had been headquartered at thePPL Building, which is the tallest building in Allentown and greaterLehigh Valley metropolitan area as of 2023. The 24-story building is 322 feet (98 m) tall. It is located at the intersection ofHamilton and 9th streets inCenter City Allentown.
On March 1, 2024, PPL Corporation announced that its subsidiary PPL Electric Utilities reached a tentative $9 million agreement to sell its 2 North Ninth St. Tower Building and office complex to Pennsylvania-based developer D&D Realty Group. The company's headquarters is now a few blocks away at 645 Hamilton St.
Exterior shots of thePPL Building were used in the 1954 motion pictureExecutive Suite.[12]
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