Louisville Gas & Electric


Louisville Gas & Electric is a utilities company based in Louisville, Kentucky. A subsidiary of PPL Corporation through the LG&E and KU Energy subsidiary, LG&E serves over 350,000 electric and over 300,000 natural gas customers, covers an area of 700 square miles, and has a total regulated electric generation capacity of 3,514 megawatts.

History

LG&E was formed in 1838 as Louisville Gas and Water, but dropped its plans to provide water utilities in 1842 changing its name simply to Louisville Gas. LG&E was originally formed by investors with the intention of providing gas-fired street lighting which had been mandated in order to help prevent crime. In 1890 LG&E amended its charter to buy stock in electric companies and acquired Louisville Electric light. In 1913, Louisville Gas, Louisville Lighting, and Kentucky Heating merged to form Louisville Gas & Electric.
In 1990, LG&E reorganized itself as a holding company LG&E Energy Corporation. In 1998, LG&E Energy merged with the other major electric utility in Kentucky, Kentucky Utilities. In 2000, LG&E Energy was bought by British utility company Powergen. In 2002, Powergen was bought by the German company E.ON. In 2003, LG&E Energy changed its name to E.ON US. Finally, in 2010, E.ON US was bought by PPL Corporation. PPL changed the name of the company to LG&E and KU Energy LLC.

Generation

The current electric generating stations serving the region include two coal-fired plants, one natural gas/fuel oil combustion turbine, one hydroelectric plant, two natural gas facilities and one natural gas combined cycle facility.

Acquisition by PPL Corporation

PPL and E.ON announced on April 28, 2010, a definitive agreement under which PPL will acquire E.ON US for $7.625 billion. The sale was closed on November 1, 2010.