News Releases

Earthquake survivors in the hard-hit community of Santa Tecla, just west of San Salvador, received sorely needed assistance for medical supplies today from an executive of the company that delivers the residents' electricity.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19981015/PHTH025 )

Mike Friedlander, executive director of PPL Corporation's (NYSE: PPL) operations in Latin America, personally delivered a check for $50,000 toward the purchase of medical supplies to representatives of the Santa Tecla community today at a camp at El Cafetalon. Some 10,000 survivors displaced by the earthquake currently are staying at the camp. More than $20,000 worth of medicines purchased by PPL for the earthquake survivors arrived in El Salvador this past Sunday.

PPL and its affiliates in the U.S. and Latin America have committed to contribute at least $100,000. A team of PPL employees also has organized a company-wide fund drive, "Dinero a Medicamentos" (Money to Medicines). With medicines being one of the most acute needs, the employees have earmarked roughly half of the corporate contribution and all of the employees' contributions for those kinds of supplies.

Santa Tecla is in the heart of the electricity distribution territory served by DelSur, PPL's subsidiary that is headquartered in San Salvador. DelSur serves about 216,000 customers in central and southern El Salvador.

Friedlander also visited the Las Colinas housing district in Santa Tecla, which experienced the brunt of the 7.6-magnitude earthquake as well as the numerous aftershocks and landslides that buried hundreds of homes and residents there.

Friedlander today praised PPL employees in the U.S. and Latin America for getting involved immediately in the relief efforts following the earthquake. "They have experienced hardship before from tornadoes, hurricanes and severe wind, ice and snow storms," he said. "They know instinctively what to do to help a local community in time of immediate need.

"Our DelSur employees worked feverishly to restore power to customers and to provide 24-hour emergency lighting in the hours following the earthquake," Friedlander said. "They also helped to dig families and homes out of the rubble left by the earthquake."

Friedlander said DelSur employees worked primarily in the following areas following the earthquake: Las Delicias, the area of Pinares de Suiza, El Cafetalon and the temporary offices of the mayor, which were destroyed by the earthquake and have been installed in the Adolfo Pineda Gym. Friedlander said DelSur also is providing lighting to the seven communities organized for displaced persons in Comasagua.

"For more than 80 years, PPL employees have been known for their generosity, their concern and their activism for people in the local communities we serve," Friedlander said. "Those qualities have come to the forefront in communities such as Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Santiago, Chile, and today, in Santa Tecla, El Salvador."

All 285 employees of DelSur are safe and have been accounted for following the earthquake. One employee did suffer the loss of a sister and a niece as a result of the earthquake. About a dozen DelSur employees sustained damage to their homes.

DelSur's electric distribution network sustained only minor damage from the earthquake. In all but a few isolated rural areas, where roads were blocked and access was by helicopter only, power was restored within 72 hours of the earthquake.

DelSur is owned by PPL Global, LLC, the subsidiary of PPL Corp. responsible for international operations and domestic development. PPL Global actively manages a growing Latin American energy business in Chile, El Salvador, Brazil and Bolivia, as well as owning energy distribution businesses in the United Kingdom.

PPL Corp., headquartered in Allentown, Pa., generates electricity at power plants in Pennsylvania, Maine and Montana; markets wholesale or retail energy in 42 U.S. states and Canada; and delivers energy to nearly 6 million customers in Pennsylvania, in the United Kingdom and in Latin America.

NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19981015/PHTH025

PRN Photo Desk, 888-776-6555 or 201-369-3467

SOURCE: PPL Corp.

Contact: George Biechler of PPL, 610-774-5997, or fax, 610-774-5281; or
Ana Mercedes-Mateu of DelSur, 011-503-243-8688

Website: http://www.pplnewsroom.com/

Website: http://www.pplweb.com/