Pennsylvania has done a better job than any other state in introducing competition — and customer choice — into the electricity business, PP&L, Inc.'s top executive told an audience in Berwick Thursday evening (10/29).

"By any number of measures, customer choice already is a success in Pennsylvania," said William F. Hecht, PP&L, Inc.'s chairman, president and chief executive officer. "While there were substantial public policy challenges to overcome in giving customers the opportunity to choose their electricity supplier, it is becoming increasingly clear that Pennsylvania got it right."

The facts, Hecht said, speak for themselves:

• More customers are shopping for electricity in Pennsylvania than anywhere in the nation.
  
• There are dozens of companies, including PP&L, Inc., selling competitively priced electricity in the commonwealth.
  
• Most customers in the state soon will be saving on their electricity bills whether they shop for electricity or not. PP&L, Inc., customers, for instance, will get an average 4 percent rate decrease for 1999.

"These savings do not only help current residents and businesses of Pennsylvania," said Hecht. "Customer choice also is revitalizing the state's economic development prospects and will ultimately lead to more jobs for the people of Pennsylvania."

Solely focusing on customer savings, however, misses another important component of the customer choice story, Hecht said.

"The power plants of the future will sell electricity on the wholesale market, and thus will be built based on prices established by the market forces of supply and demand, not by regulation," said Hecht. "That simple fact will lead to the construction of new, efficient state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly plants.

"This competitive electricity market will result in significant investments in new power plants in Pennsylvania over the next decade or so — investments that will provide new jobs, enhanced tax revenues and more electricity to fuel further economic expansion in the state," said Hecht.

For instance, a subsidiary of PP&L Resources, Inc., announced last week that it is developing a $250 million power plant in Northampton County, near the town of Martins Creek, Hecht said. And, he added, two other power plants in the state recently have been sold, indicating that there is substantial interest in Pennsylvania generating facilities.

Hecht said that estimates have shown that the mid-Atlantic region has the need for more than 6,000 megawatts of new electricity over the next decade and Pennsylvania has a great opportunity to attract some of this new investment.

Hecht said Pennsylvania's early success in implementing the more competitive electricity market is encouraging.

"I am optimistic that 20 years from now, the next generation of Pennsylvanians will thank us for taking the bold steps we are taking today — and for keeping our eye on the future," said Hecht.

He made his remarks at a meeting of community leaders in the area surrounding PP&L, Inc.'s Susquehanna nuclear plant. He told the group that the changing nature of the electricity business would not affect the way PP&L, Inc. operates the 15-year-old Susquehanna plant.

"The long-term safe operation of the plant remains our primary objective at Susquehanna. A focus on safety is a commitment we made to you before a spade of earth was turned in Salem Township, and it is a commitment that continues to drive our every action," said Hecht.

He said that there also is a bottom-line aspect to the company's safety commitment. "It is clear from mountains of statistics, in the United States and elsewhere, that the safest nuclear plants also are the most productive," Hecht said.

Hecht meets annually with community leaders in the area of the Susquehanna plant.