Apr. 21—WILKES-BARRE — When it comes to utilities in Northeast Pennsylvania, one word comes to mind — reliability.
So much so, that reliability is not just good business practice — it's vital.
John Augustine, president and CEO at Penn's Northeast, recently held a Utility Roundtable at the Times Leader with all three local utilities represented. Attending were:
Alana Roberts, PPL regional affairs director; Don Brominski, UGI business development director; Allison Dennison, UGI sales manager; Traci A, Cross, Pennsylvania American Water senior director of operations; and Daniel Rickard, Pennsylvania American Water senior manager of operations.
Representing the Times Leader Media Group were: Kerry Miscavage, publisher; Joe Soprano, executive editor; Liz Baumeister, news editor; Mark Guydish, editorial writer.
Rachel Hawk, Penn's Northeast marketing director, also attended.
The title of the roundtable was: "The Role of Utilities in Community & Economic Development."
"Utilities play a vital role in community and economic development in the regions that they operate in," Augustine said. "The goal of the roundtable was to showcase the partnership between Penn's Northeast and the utilities and the benefits they bring to the communities that they serve outside of their main role of providing service."
Economic and community development
"Marcellus shale was a game-changer for us," said UGI's Brominski. "Our prices can't be beat anywhere in the U.S. We're averaging 10,000 to 15,000 new customers per year. We seeing constant growth."
Augustine agreed, noting the loads on utilities are increasing constantly and delivery time has not been affected. He said utilities are constantly making improvements to their systems to position themselves to meet the growing demands of existing and future customers.
"Reliability is at the top of our corporate values — it's in our DNA," said PPL's Roberts.
All the utilities said they feel optimistic about the next five years, from an economic development aspect.
Augustine said when COVID hit, there was a significant breakdown in the supply chain, with companies looking to move inward from the port areas.
"Over the next five years, we see incredible growth for our region," Augustine said. "Along the Interstate 81 corridor, we have 65 million square feet of space waiting to be developed."
Augustine said that NEPA has benefited from a "spillover" from the Lehigh Valley area and he expects that trend to continue.
"These utilities are getting ready for that new development," Augustine said. "We've already recently seen seven international companies set up shop in NEPA. We've never seen that type of growth before."
Augustine said NEPA has seen less $9-per-hour jobs and many more in the $17-per-hour-and-up range.
"And right now we have the lowest unemployment rate in history," Augustine said. "The challenge will be to find the workers needed to fill the jobs that are coming."
Augustine noted that new jobs will attract new workers and the demand will be on all areas of the industrial group to create new neighborhoods with housing stock and infrastructure and, of course, access to all utilities.
PAW's Rickard said the water company will be faced with extending its systems and the challenge of an aging infrastructure.
"We are constantly replacing old water lines," Rickard said. "Some of the lines were put in by Civil War veterans. We replace an average of 20 miles of lines per year, plus our system is always expanding."
Rickard, like Roberts of PPL and Brominski of UGI, says all of the work costs money, which will result in higher customer rates.
"The only way we can offset rates rising too high is by adding customers," Brominski said.
Roberts said PPL has a 29-county service area and there is opportunity for growth.
"We have the capacity to meet the demands of that growth," she said.
And customer service is also at the top of each utility's priority list. Any issue reported to the utilities will be resolved as soon as possible, they said.
When a severe storm hits, or some other issue that causes an interruption is service, the utilities all said that restoring service as soon as possible is top priority.
The utilities also have programs to assist customers in bill paying.
Challenges/opportunities
All the utilities said regulations are always an issue and more seem to be added often. Augustine said other areas of the U.S. have sped up the process of securing permits. He said if the permit process takes too long, it could delay a company's decision to locate here — or worse, they could decide to go elsewhere.
"It could mean winning or losing a new employer," Augustine said.
PPL's Roberts, UGI's Brominski and PAW's Rickard and Cross agreed, saying that it could take three years in some cases to get from planning to putting a shovel in the ground.
They all said there are challenges in workforce patterns as well, such as identifying employees prospects and also the expense that goes with that.
PPL and UGI each employ approximately 1,700, and PAW has 1,200 employees.
Community involvement
Roberts said PPL and its employees are deeply involved in the communities they serve. She said in 2022, PPL donated $6.3 million to nonprofit organizations and their employees have given countless hours as volunteers.
Same goes for PAW and UGI, both saying they encourage community involvement and they donate corporate dollars as well.
"We are all involved deeply in the communities we serve," said PAW's Cross. "We really do go above and beyond to give back to the community."
UGI's Brominski said he serves on a number of area boards and committees and many in the company do the same.
"At UGI, we feel we're only successful if we have healthy communities," Brominski said. "Strong communities are critical to strong utilities."
PPL's Roberts added, "I'm really proud of all of us. We are competitors, but not adversarial. And we are also collaborators. We're all in this together for our customers. And we're all here to stay."
Roberts, Brominski and Cross said they all work together. They said improving their systems is an ongoing process.
Epilogue
Augustine said that more than 20 years ago when discussions were held about creating a regional economic development agency, the utilities were very supportive.
"They knew first hand that in order to be effective and grow our region, we needed to promote our collective assets," Augustine said. "The affordability and reliability of utilities consistently rank in the top five criteria by site selector consultants."
Augustine said the region is fortunate that our utility companies go above and beyond to give back to the community in which they service.
"All of them have various programs to improve the quality of life and specifically are members of Penn's Northeast which helps us to market the region," he said. "It is important that they continue to invest in their infrastructure so that we can maintain a competitive advantage over other states."
Augustine said the region's proximity to the Marcellus Shale provides our region with an endless amount of affordable and reliable energy.
"Utilities play a crucial role in economic development by providing essential services and infrastructure that support various sectors of the economy," he said.
COMPANY OVERVIEWS
—PPL
President/CEO: Christine Martin, President PPL Electric Utilities
Number of customers: 1.5 million
Counties served: All or part of 29 counties in eastern and central PA
Employees: 1,700
Miles of power lines: 50K-plus
Website: www.pplelectric.com
—Pennsylvania American Water
President/CEO: PAWC President, Justin Ladner
American Water President & CEO: M. Susan Hardwick
Number of customers: 682,000; plus wastewater service to 97,000
Counties served: 19% of the commonwealth's population; 418 communities in 37 counties.
Employees: Approximately 1,200
Miles of water lines: Maintain 11,650 miles of water and sewer pipeline.
Website: www.amwater.com/paaw
—UGI
President/CEO: Hans Bell (President)
Number of customers: 684,000 gas customers in PA; 550 in Maryland; 62,700 electric customers in PA in Luzerne and Wyoming counties.
Counties served: 46
Employees: 1,700 (UGI Utilities)
Miles of power lines/gas mains: 13,000 miles of gas pipeline, 2,600 miles of transmission and distribution electric lines.
Website: www.ugi.com
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITIES
—Pennsylvania America Water
Pennsylvania America Water is largest investor-owned water and wastewater utility in the U.S., an industry leader for drinking water quality, innovation and environmental leadership. Here are workforce opportunities that may be of interest to local readers:
— Plant Operator
Primary role: Operates and controls plant machinery and equipment to purify and clarify water for human consumption and commercial and industrial use. Remotely controls distribution pumps, tanks and equipment to maintain water and fire service in the distribution system. Monitors and tests water quality to ensure safe water quality.
Qualifications needed: high school graduate; vocational preparation or associates or bachelor's in environmental science preferred. Candidate will need to obtain DEP water license which Pennsylvania American Water can assist with.
— Utility Person
Primary Role: To perform a variety of tasks in supervising and participation in the locating, laying, repairing and extending underground water mains and distribution pipes.
Qualifications needed: High school graduate; vocational experience; three years in construction, plumbing or building trade.
Pennsylvania America Water has more opportunities available such as water quality specialists, engineers and more. To learn more, visit jobs.amwater.com.
—PPL Electric Utilities
Why choose a career at PPL Electric Utilities? It's simply the people who use their energy each day to discover new pathways to power lives. PPL is more than a special place to work — it's a vital part of what keeps our communities running, connected and growing every single day.
Here are just a few opportunities:
— Line worker apprentice program — Helper-FS-regional -TD shift
PPL's apprentice program hires in groups or classes of students. Each class is about 15-18 apprentices annually.
PPL partners with line schools both locally and in other states including Northampton Community College; Johnson College of Technology; Penn College of Technology; Southeast Lineman Technical College, Trenton, GA; and Line Institute of the Northeast, Kingston, N.Y.
It includes eight-weeks of intensive training before reporting out to service centers.
Four-year apprentice program may lead to journeyman lineman status.
— Distribution service tech trainee:
Two-year associate degree in engineering technology or electrical engineering required.
PPL recruits from: Thaddeus Stevens; Penn State, including satellite campuses; Johnson College of Technology; additional colleges, community colleges and tech and trade schools in PPL regions
— PPL's intern program:
PPL hires on average 50 interns per summer in engineering, IT and other business lines.
Students need to be juniors and seniors pursuing a four-year degree from an accredited college or university.
Students obtain both office and field experience, mentoring, workshops, career planning advice and more.
In the past two years, PPL has hired approximately 30% of engineering interns to full time engineering roles.
To learn more, visit careers.pplweb.com/jobs.
—UGI Utilities
UGI Utilities is committed to attracting, retaining and developing a diverse workforce. Currently, job opportunities exist in several areas including field utility work within construction and maintenance, field customer service and call center representatives with hybrid work schedules. UGI Utilities partners with universities and trade schools and participates in employment fairs. A collaboration with the Center for Energy Workforce Development focuses in part on providing job opportunities to veterans. Efforts to retain and grow the company's workforce includes skill development and position advancement opportunities, as well as tuition reimbursement. UGI Utilities' goal is building a workforce that aligns with its core values that include safety, reliability and excellence.
UGI Utilities is looking to for several applicants for the position of manager electric operation lineman.
Qualifications: First class lineman/journeyman lineman experience is preferred. A candidate with a minimum of an associate's degree in electrical engineering technology with direct experience in electric utility distribution design, construction, line construction work methods, applicable safe work practices and maintenance activities will be considered. Extent of experience will be considered if education is not in line with the education requirement.
For additional employment opportunities, fist visit bit.ly/3w4QAwj.
Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.
