Allegheny Energy, Inc. history

1923: Potomac Edison is formed.

West Penn Electric officially incorporated in 1925.

When the stock market crash of 1929 brought many of these holding companies to bankruptcy, thousands of stock and bond holders were ruined and the outcry prompted a series of congressional investigations of the power industry.

In 1935 Congress enacted the Public Utility Holding Company Act, a comprehensive piece of legislation designed to restrict the concentration of ownership in the power industry to those instances where it clearly resulted in greater efficiency and lower consumer costs.

The SEC objected to this arrangement and ordered American Water Works to propose a plan for segregation of its water and electric holdings, which was forwarded and accepted in January 1948.

In 1960 West Penn Electric adopted its present name of Allegheny Power System, Inc.

Allegheny's focus shifted toward new opportunities in 1992, when the Energy Policy Act opened the door for deregulation of the nation's regional utilities.

At the end of 1999 Allegheny finally became a player in the natural gas industry with the purchase of West Virginia Power.

The new amendments were aimed squarely at owners of coal-fired generators such as Allegheny's operating companies, setting new, more stringent limits on sulfur dioxide emissions that were to become fully effective in the year 2000.

FirstEnergy nearly doubled its revenue to more than $12 billion and customers served to more than 4.3 million when it merged with the former GPU, Inc., based in Morristown, New Jersey, in 2001.