Allegheny Energy

Allegheny Energy was an electric utility headquartered in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. It owned and operated electric generation facilities and delivered electric services to customers in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia. Allegheny Energy was incorporated in Maryland in 1925 as West Penn Electric Company. One of its predecessor companies dates back to the formation of West Penn Power on January 31, 1907.
The company had three primary businesses: "merchant generation," which operated power plants primarily in Pennsylvania and West Virginia; "transmission expansion;" and "utility operations," consisting of transmission and distribution operations serving 1.6 million customers, primarily in small towns and rural areas.
Allegheny merged with FirstEnergy in February 2011.
Subsidiary companies.
Allegheny Energy operated its electric distribution operations under the trade name Allegheny Power. Its regulated subsidiaries were West Penn Power (serving Southwestern and Central Pennsylvania), Monongahela Power ("Mon Power," serving Northern and Southern West Virginia, as well as Hancock and Brooke Counties in the Northern Panhandle), and The Potomac Edison Company (western Maryland, parts of eastern West Virginia, and (until 2010) northern Virginia). The electric generating plants were operated by subsidiary Allegheny Energy Supply Company and Monongahela Power.
In 1999, Monongahela Power purchased the distribution assets of West Virginia Power, a utility owned by UtiliCorp United based in Lewisburg, West Virginia. West Virginia Power's operations were centered on portions of southeastern West Virginia. It is said UtiliCorp sold the subsidiary to concentrate on its main operations in the midwestern US. UtiliCorp had purchased the division from Dominion Resources in 1986, of which it had operated as the West Virginia Power division of Virginia Electric & Power Company (VEPCO).
Allegheny Energy formerly operated in sections of eastern Ohio, until early 2006, when regulatory issues within Ohio forced them to sell the territory to Columbus Southern Power, a division of American Electric Power, Inc.
In 2010, Allegheny officially sold their Virginia service area. Counties west of the Blue Ridge Mountains were purchased by Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative of Mount Crawford, Virginia, while counties to the east were sold to Rappahannock Electric Cooperative of Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Merger.
In 1997, Allegheny and Duquesne Light Holding Company (DQE) agreed to a $4.3 billion merger with headquarters remaining in Hagerstown, Maryland. However DQE backed out of the deal by 1998.
In February 2010, Allegheny announced plans to merge with FirstEnergy. The merger was completed on February 25, 2011.
Customer service.
Allegheny Power was ranked number one in customer satisfaction among utilities in the northeastern United States in 2010, according to TQS Research. The recent recognition marks the sixth consecutive year large commercial and industrial customers rated Allegheny Power the region's top performer.
Southwestern Pennsylvania, excluding the city of Pittsburgh, provided about half of regulated utility revenues.
Environmental policies, practice and record.
Allegheny has indicated that its policy is "to produce and distribute electricity in a reliable and responsible manner that protects its personnel, communities, customers, and the environment." 
In February 1995, the company signed a participation accord with the United States Department of Energy as a participant in the Climate Challenge Program. Under this accord, Allegheny Energy agreed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions (as carbon dioxide equivalents) by two million tons per year by 2000. Through a series of reduction efforts including demand side management programs, heat-rate, and efficiency improvements on generation equipment, transportation alternatives, and land-use management involving forestation and vegetative sequestration efforts, Allegheny was able to achieve just under 8.5 million tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent reductions. These reductions fulfilled the company's Climate Challenge commitment goal by the calendar year 2000.
Carbon dioxide reduction efforts have continued since 2000, and Allegheny has since recorded another 9 million tons of avoided emissions through continued efficiency improvements, demand-side management measures, and vegetative sequestration.
The company complied with current sulfur dioxide emissions standards through a system-wide plan combining the use of emission controls, low sulfur fuel and emission allowances. Allegheny has taken steps to significantly reduce sulfur dioxide emissions at its generating facilities, investing $1.3 billion to install clean air technology at both the Hatfield's Ferry and Fort Martin power stations. With the addition of scrubbers at these plants, 85 percent of its coal-fired fleet now utilizes the best available controls for reducing sulfur dioxide emissions. Allegheny now has one of the cleanest fleets in the United States with respect to sulfur dioxide. The scrubber projects will also significantly reduce mercury emissions at these power stations.
2005 litigation.
In 2005, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland filed suit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania against Allegheny Energy. The suit claimed that Allegheny Energy has made major upgrades at its Armstrong, Hatfield's Ferry, and Mitchell electric generating stations, having dramatically increased emissions without installing new pollution controls required by the Clean Air Act.
A trial was held in 2010. But in the five years that elapsed between the filing of the suit and the trial, the company's sulfur dioxide emissions profile improved significantly. The scrubbers at Fort Martin and Hatfield’s Ferry, completed in 2009, removed approximately 95 percent of the sulfur dioxide emissions at those facilities, totaling more than 200,000 tons annually from the two plants. Mercury emissions at the facilities have also dropped significantly as result of the scrubbers. In 2014 the suit was dropped.
At the time the suit was filed, opponents claimed that the plants were emitting thousands of tons of pollution each year, including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, which were allegedly wind-blown into New Jersey. They also claimed this causes smog, acid rain, and different respiratory disease. "New Jersey continues to pursue litigation to protect our citizens' health and meet clean air quality standards," Gov. Jon S. Corzine said. "This decision proves that New Jersey can and will pursue action to enforce the Clean Air Act's protections even when the federal government abdicates its own responsibility to do so." The 2005 suit claimed that three plants at issue in the litigation were at the time emitting in total hundreds of thousands of tons of pollutants a year. It also claimed that the three plants were putting out more nitrogen oxide emissions than all the power plants in New Jersey combined and more than three times the total amount of sulfur dioxide emissions emitted by all New Jersey power plants. The 2005 litigation also claimed that the Hatfield's Ferry plant was at that time the fifth largest single source of sulfur dioxide emissions in the country. The suit claimed violations of Pennsylvania's air pollution laws and regulations. New Jersey sought injunctive relief to require Allegheny to reduce its harmful emissions by installing up to date pollution controls at each of the three plants. The states also asked the court to apply penalties and order Allegheny to take additional appropriate actions to make up for the harm done to public health and the environment by its violations of federal and state law.
Printing.
From 2007 until 2017, the Daily Mail & General Trust had a printing plant in Didcot.
Military.
The British Army's Vauxhall Barracks is on the edge of town. The regimental headquarters of 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search Regiment RLC is based in the town.
Local government and representation.
Until 1974 Didcot was in Berkshire, but was transferred to Oxfordshire in that year, and from Wallingford Rural District to the district of South Oxfordshire, becoming the largest town in the new district. Didcot is also the largest town in the parliamentary constituency of Wantage, which has been represented since 2019 at Westminster by David Johnston, Conservative.
Didcot is a parish but has the status of a town. It is administered by Didcot Town Council, which comprises 21 councillors representing the six wards in the town:
Health.
The district in England with the highest healthy life expectancy, according to an Office for National Statistics (ONS) study, is the 1990s-built Ladygrove Estate in Didcot. While the average UK healthy lifespan was thought to be 68.8 for women and 67 for men in 2001, people in Ladygrove district of Didcot could expect 86 healthy years. It is believed Ladygrove may have benefited from the local recreation grounds and sports centre.
Education.
Didcot is served by seven primary schools: All Saints' C of E, Aureus, Ladygrove Park, Manor, Northbourne C of E, Stephen Freeman and Willowcroft. Along with these seven schools based in Didcot, a further six local village schools form the Didcot Primary Partnership: Blewbury Endowed C of E, Cholsey, Hagbourne, Harwell Community, Long Wittenham C of E and South Moreton County. There is also a new primary, GEMS Didcot Primary Academy, in the Great Western Park area, which falls under Harwell Parish.
There are two state secondary schools in Didcot: St Birinus School and Didcot Girls' School are single-sex schools that join together at sixth form to host "Didcot Sixth Form". Recently, another two secondary schools have opened; UTC Oxfordshire (ages 14-19), in 2015, and Aureus School (ages 11-16), in 2017.
Arts and culture.
Cornerstone, a new 278-seater multi-purpose arts centre, was opened on 29 August 2008.
Didcot Choral Society, founded in 1958, performs three concerts a year in various venues around the town as well as an annual tour (Paris in 2008, Belgium in 2009).
Didcot Concert Orchestra, founded in 2017, performs three concerts a year at Cornerstone.
In November 2018, Rebellion Developments began setting up a new studio on the edge of Didcot, valued at $100 million, using the existing former "Daily Mail" printing works on Milton Road. The studio is planned to be used for film and TV series based on "2000 AD" comic series characters, including "Judge Dredd: Mega City One."
Sport and leisure.
Didcot Town Football Club's home ground is the Draycott Engineering Loop Meadow Stadium on the Ladygrove Estate, having moved from their previous pitch off Station Road in 1999 to make way for the new supermarket development. The club currently play in the 8th tier of the English Football League system. Most notable achievements include winning the FA Vase in 2005 and reaching The FA Cup 1st Round in 2015.
Didcot has three main leisure centres: Didcot Leisure Centre, Didcot Wave Leisure Pool and Willowbrook Leisure Centre.
Didcot has its own chapter of the Hash House Harriers. The club started in 1986 (the first run was on 8 April of that year).
Didcot Cricket Club's current home ground is at Boundary Park in Great Western Park.
Didcot Dragons Korfball club was founded in 2003. The club has two teams in the Oxfordshire leagues. They train in Willowbrook Leisure Centre in winter and Boundary Park in summer.
Didcot Phoenix cycle club was founded in 1973 and is represented by over 70 members who participate in a range of cycling activities including touring, time trials, road racing, Audax, cyclocross and off-road events.
The Didcot & District Table Tennis Association (DDTTA) was established in 1949 to promote the playing of table tennis in the Didcot area. It organises an annual league competition containing affiliated teams from towns and villages across south Oxfordshire.
Didcot Runners is an AAA affiliated running club that meets every Tuesday & Thursday for group runs and fitness sessions at Didcot Town Football Club. Its members participate in running races across the country.
The OVO Energy Women's Tour, a road cycling event, passed through Didcot on 12 June 2019. The race was halted for around 30 minutes on the Broadway because of a crash that caused the withdrawal of race leader Marianne Vos.
Parks, gardens and open spaces.
Didcot Town Council maintains the following:
Didcot also has a nature reserve, Mowbray Fields, where wildlife including common spotted orchid and Southern Marsh Orchid occur.
Notable people.
Didcot was the birthplace of William Bradbery, the first person to cultivate watercress commercially in the early 19th century. Didcot is also the birthplace of former Reading and Oxford United manager Maurice Evans and one of Reading's most-capped football players Jerry Williams. Didcot-born rower Ken Lester competed in the 1960 Summer Olympics at the age of 13 in the coxed pairs (as the cox), he remains Britain's youngest ever male Olympian. Figurative artist Rodney Gladwell was also born in the town in 1928. Air Commodore Russell La Forte was born in Didcot in 1960 and was commander of British armed forces in the South Atlantic Islands between 2013 and 2015. He was a member of the Didcot Air Training Corps (Air Cadets) as a child.
Matt Richardson, a comedian and television presenter known for hosting "The Xtra Factor", grew up in Didcot. The band Radiohead are from nearby Abingdon and recorded many tracks from their discography in a converted apple shed on the edge of Didcot, near the power station site. This included a number of tracks from "OK Computer" that has appeared frequently in critic's lists of the greatest albums of all time.
In popular culture.
Didcot's synonymous connection with railways was noted in Douglas Adams and John Lloyd's humorous book the "Meaning of Liff", published in 1983. The book, a "dictionary of things that there aren't any words for yet", referred to "a Didcot" as "The small, oddly shaped bit of card which a ticket inspector cuts out of a ticket with his clipper for no apparent reason".
Didcot is referred to in Ricky Gervais' comedy feature film "": the song "Lady Gypsy" on the film's soundtrack tells of a romantic meeting "by the lakeside, just south of Didcot".
An electricity pylon on farmland alongside Abingdon Road (opposite Tamar Way) on the eastern edge of Didcot featured on the cover of US rock band Black Swan Lane's album "Under My Fallen Sky", released in November 2017.