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PPL Corporation’s efforts to help attract jobs to southern Pennsylvania have been named 2007 Program of the Year by the Pennsylvania Economic Development Association.

The award recognizes PPL’s work to analyze what attracted agriculture, food and alternative energy industries to Berks, Chester, Lancaster and Lebanon counties and how those counties can build on that success.

“Economic development is fiercely competitive, and PPL’s role in encouraging regional economic development cooperation is very valuable, especially in a difficult economy,” said Edward J. Swoyer Jr., president of the Greater Berks Development Fund and chairman of PEDA’s awards committee.

It is one of several economic development studies — including one that helped attract a $15 million grant — that PPL has been involved in to encourage growth in the communities where it does business.

“Instead of using the same old tired statements about why it’s good to do business in these counties, we delved into the sector and discovered in detail why companies chose to be here and why it’s a fertile region of the state for agriculture, food and alternative energy industries to consider,” said Donald Bernhard, PPL’s manager of Community and Economic Development.

“This is fact-based research, not generalizations based on perceptions,” he said. “Another big part of this is regional cooperation, because several counties were required to work together and to market themselves as a region. That sends an important signal that the region is a healthy place to do business.”

PPL’s Targeted Industry Study Program, conducted by Moran, Stahl and Boyer, a national site selection firm, resulted in a resource guide that provides the four participating counties with hard data and regional marketing methods to target the industry sectors.

Agriculture, food and alternative energy were identified by the commonwealth’s IBM Global Competitiveness Study as viable new business targets for that part of Pennsylvania. 

“PPL’s study, which reflects its collaborative approach to economic development, was recognized because of its focused strategy on targeted industries but on a regional basis,” Swoyer said.

This was the third industry study conducted by PPL. The first regional study was a resource profile for the financial services and insurance industries that covered seven counties in northeastern Pennsylvania.

The results of that study were used as foundation data by the grant writers at Ben Franklin Technology Partners to attract a $15 million WIRED grant from the U.S. Department of Labor for workforce development in these industries.

PPL’s update of that profile led to its second study, which was used as a marketing tool for the Wall Street West initiative, which is helping northeastern Pennsylvania communities attract financial firms from New York City.

This is the first year PEDA has presented a Program of the Year Award. Organizations that have won PEDA awards in other categories in recent years include the Harrisburg Regional Chamber & Capital Region Economic Development Corp., Hazleton’s CAN DO and the Scranton Plan. Projects ranged from promoting entrepreneurial development to restoring downtowns and creating jobs and attracting new businesses.

Based in Harrisburg, PEDA promotes sound economic development policies, provides leading-edge economic development education, and nurtures an effective statewide economic development network to foster the economic health of the commonwealth.

PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL), headquartered in Allentown, Pa., controls more than 11,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to about 4 million customers in Pennsylvania and the United Kingdom.