The largest electric company is our area will no longer be the same kind of company we've known.
PPL plans to get out of the business of making electricity and concentrate on delivering it.
PPL is merging with another energy firm to form a new company: Talen Energy Corporation
PPL thinks that by separating power generation from distribution both companies will be more valuable.
Talen Energy will be the new owners of the nuclear power plant near Berwick, the coal-fired plant near Washingtonville, and Lake Wallenpaupack.
The PPL name has been associated with those facilities for decades but in the next year or so, they and the hundreds of people they employ will not be part of PPL but rather the new company Talen Energy.
PPL Susquehanna, as it's currently known, is one of the largest employers in our area. The nuclear power plant in the Berwick area has 1,100 workers.
Plant officials said today those employees will transition to Talen Energy "seamlessly."
PPL Montour coal plant employs 280 people and again the company says the plan overall is to keep most employees.
Talen Energy is a combination of power plants from PPL and another energy firm, Riverstone Holdings.
The merger needs federal approval.
PPL says the reason for this move is to focus on its more profitable distribution of electricity, not the production.
What that means is that those of you who get your electric bills from PPL will still get those bills and electricity will be brought to your homes through PPL power lines. That's not changing.
But the PPL name will be coming off a lot of signs at the three facilities in our area.