1970s

• Pennsylvania Power & Light is recognized as one of the leaders in the industry in environmental activities.
   
• The Montour facility goes on line. It is the first Pennsylvania Power & Light generating station to use natural draft cooling towers. It also is the company's first coal-fired plant not located on a stream or river. Instead, water is pumped through a 12-mile-long pipeline from the Susquehanna River. A dammed stream creates a 162-acre lake for emergency water supply. The lake and surrounding acreage become the core of the Montour Environmental Preserve the company maintains for public use.
  

• At the start of the decade, Pennsylvania Power & Light announces plans to build its first nuclear power plant. By the time construction reaches its peak in the late 1970s, more than 2,500 construction workers are employed at the Berwick site. This is the largest construction job in the company's history. Part of the facility includes a separate simulator building to help plant operators train for potential emergencies. Because of the licensing and permitting process, as well as public scrutiny and additional government oversight after the Three Mile Island accident, it is 13 years before Unit One at Susquehanna begins commercial operation.

• Tropical Storm Agnes causes the worst hurricane damage in Pennsylvania history, dumping 18 inches of rain over Pennsylvania Power & Light's service area. At the height of the storm, about 130,000 customers are without power. Generating plants, substations and distribution networks are under as much as 17 feet of water, causing a total of $11 million in damage to company facilities and equipment.

• For the first time since the construction of the Wallenpaupack hydroelectric plant in the 1920s, Pennsylvania Power & Light decides to build generating units that did not burn coal. The decision to install two oil-fired units at Martins Creek power plant requires construction of an 80-mile pipeline to carry the oil to the plant and illustrates the company's growing environmental awareness. When the new units begin commercial operation in 1975 and 1977, Martins Creek becomes the largest plant on the Pennsylvania Power & Light system.

• In the late '70s, energy conservation becomes the watchword at Pennsylvania Power & Light, as well as the rest of the utility industry. This decade has brought new energy realities with two oil embargoes, double-digit inflation, high energy prices and increasing electric rates. In response, the company begins energy conservation programs for homeowners and creates a consumer advisory panel to address energy problems.