PP&L, Inc.'s success in helping to attract new jobs to the region has been recognized by one of the country's leading economic development journals.
Site Selection -- a magazine for corporate executives, developers, real estate professionals and site location consultants -- included PP&L among its top 10 utility economic development organizations in the United States.
PP&L is the only utility in Pennsylvania -- in fact the only utility in the entire Northeast -- to make Site Selection's top 10, noted William F. Hecht, chairman, president and chief executive officer of PP&L Resources, Inc.
"Over the years, PP&L's economic development program has received many local, regional and national honors. This may be the greatest. A well-respected publication has recognized us as one of the best at what we do," he said.
Inclusion in Site Selection's top 10 will increase PP&L's stature among executives and people who make decisions about plant locations, Hecht added. It also further demonstrates PP&L's commitment to the communities of Central Eastern Pennsylvania.
PP&L provides confidential site location services, community leadership, financial support and promotional advertising as part of its comprehensive program to bring new jobs to the area. PP&L's economic development professionals work with local, regional and state organizations, as well as business partners involved in economic development.
"Our partners share in the credit for the successes we've had," Hecht said. "PP&L's economic development program is built on partnerships to recruit aggressively for new jobs across the country and around the world."
Over the past 12 months, PP&L's economic development team has helped attract more than 7,100 jobs and more than $600 million in new capital investments to Central Eastern Pennsylvania through partnerships it has established.
The company also is known for its innovations in economic development.
"We recently entered into a strategic alliance for economic development and community affairs with Electriciti de France, one of the world's largest electric companies," said Donna S. Buchheit, PP&L's manager of Economic Development. "We also created an Internet site, which lists information about nearly 1,000 available industrial and office properties in the region.
"These innovations enhance the personal, one-to-one approach that has become a trademark of PP&L's economic development program," she said.
PP&L and other top utilities in economic development are featured in the September issue of Site Selection. In an article, the magazine calls PP&L's economic development program "very aggressive. And very effective."
Meeting the needs of communities and customers is an integral part of the way PP&L does business.
In addition, PP&L, Inc. was ranked highest in customer satisfaction with electric service in the eastern United States in a study by J. D. Power and Associates and Navigant Consulting, Inc.
J. D. Power and Associates/Navigant Consulting, Inc. 1999 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction StudySM. Study based on a total of 26,096 consumer responses. In the Eastern U.S., the top 20 largest electric companies were ranked in the study. www.jdpower.com.