Representatives from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration awarded the center "Star" certification in the agency’s Voluntary Protection Program. The program recognizes companies that go beyond compliance to protect worker health and safety. The VPP Star certification is the highest safety recognition given within the program.

"PPL employees believe that federal regulations are merely a starting point," said Louis J. Balli, a foreman in PPL’s Facilities Management department and chairman of the site’s VPP committee. "Our goal is to set workplace standards that go beyond the minimum. Through hard work and cooperation between management, labor and OSHA, the System Facilities Center has done that. It is now a model for other companies throughout the country."

Companies that qualify for VPP status view OSHA standards as a minimum level of safety and health performance and set their own, more stringent standards for effective employee protection. VPP participant sites generally experience 52 percent fewer lost workday injuries than would be expected of an average site for its industry. Only about 860 work sites have earned recognition in the program out of more than 7 million that OSHA monitors.

OSHA evaluates the following components of a safety and health program to determine if a facility is worthy of VPP Star status: management leadership and employee involvement, work-site analysis, training, and hazard prevention and control.

"Today’s recognition reflects the great effort and teamwork of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1600, management and OSHA," said David M. Logic, chief steward of Local 1600 at the System Facilities Center. "This process works because everyone gets involved in safety improvement."

An OSHA team re-evaluates VPP Star sites every three to five years for recertification. To be recertified, sites must continue to show improvement in their safety and health programs.

The System Facilities Center is one of seven PPL sites that have achieved VPP Star status. They are the Martins Creek, Susquehanna, Montour, Brunner Island and Holtwood power plants, and PPL Interstate Energy Co., a pipeline subsidiary that brings fuel to one of the power plants.

The System Facilities Center, located in the Humboldt Industrial Park near Route 924 and Interstate 81 west of Hazleton, provides corporate support for PPL’s electric delivery and generation subsidiaries. The center consists of a chemical laboratory for analyzing coal and environmental samples; electronic, communication and mechanical test shops; repair shops for tools and for transformer and electrical switching equipment; materials management warehousing; and electrical metering services. Approximately 170 PPL employees work full time in the 290,000-square-foot building.

"Having the System Facilities Center earn VPP Star recognition is significant because of the range of tasks that workers perform," said Paul D. Santarelli, manager of System Shops for PPL Electric Utilities. "Moreover, the employees are assigned to several different PPL subsidiaries, yet they work to achieve a common purpose: advancing workplace health and safety."

PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL), headquartered in Allentown, Pa., controls more than 12,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America.