Utilities...you gotta love 'em. They give us power, heat, water, communications - and the ability to battle space aliens at 2 a.m. with your buddies over the Internet.

Of course, when it comes to your business, the cost and reliability of utilities is no game.

Thankfully, to the residents and businesses of the Penn's Northeast region, utilities are much more of a comfort than a concern. That's because those of us who live here benefit from highly reliable and affordable utility service. Electricity in our area costs up to 56% less than it does in other areas of the Northeastern United States, our telecommunications infrastructure is as good as you'll find anywhere and our natural gas service is widespread, efficient and cost effective. The water pressure in our business parks is above average and our sewer plants have excess capacity.

The following utility companies are partners of Penn's Northeast:

PG Energy, headquartered in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, is Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania's largest natural gas distribution company. PG Energy serves approximately 156,000 customers in 13 counties throughout Pennsylvania.

PPL markets and delivers energy to nearly 6 million customers throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Latin America. PPL services 1.4 million people in Pennsylvania alone.

UGI Utilities, Inc., Electric Division (UGI) provides electrical service to more than 60,000 customers in Northeastern Pennsylvania. UGI's Gas Division provides natural gas service to 272,000 customers in 14 counties in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Northeastern Pennsylvania benefits from the unique and complementary strengths of the former Bell Atlantic and GTE companies, which have come together to form one of the world's premier communications companies — Verizon Communications.

With 63 million access lines, Verizon can provide the crucial first-mile link to the global telecommunications network for millions of homes and businesses‚ across 31 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Verizon's Scranton Central Office is the northeast tandem office for the entire Northeast lata and is the facility point of presence for all interexchange carriers (AT&T, MCI, Sprint, etc.).

For information about these and other utility services in Penn's Northeast please call 800-317-1313.