Allegheny Energy was an electric utility headquartered in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. It owned and operated electric generation facilities and delivered electric services to customers in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia. Allegheny Energy was incorporated in Maryland in 1925 as West Penn Electric Company. One of its predecessor companies dates back to the formation of West Penn Power on January 31, 1907. The company had three primary businesses: "merchant generation," which operated power plants primarily in Pennsylvania and West Virginia; "transmission expansion;" and "utility operations," consisting of transmission and distribution operations serving 1.6 million customers, primarily in small towns and rural areas. Allegheny merged with FirstEnergy in February 2011. Subsidiary companies Allegheny Energy operated its electric distribution operations under the trade name Allegheny Power. Its regulated subsidiaries were West Penn Power (serving Southwestern and Central Pennsylvania), Monongahela Power ("Mon Power," serving Northern and Southern West Virginia, as well as Hancock and Brooke Counties in the Northern Panhandle), and The Potomac Edison Company (western Maryland, parts of eastern West Virginia, and (until 2010) northern Virginia). The electric generating plants were operated by subsidiary Allegheny Energy Supply Company and Monongahela Power. In 1999, Monongahela Power purchased the distribution assets of West Virginia Power, a utility owned by UtiliCorp United based in Lewisburg, West Virginia. West Virginia Power's operations were centered on portions of southeastern West Virginia. It is said UtiliCorp sold the subsidiary to concentrate on its main operations in the midwestern US. UtiliCorp had purchased the division from Dominion Resources in 1986, of which it had operated as the West Virginia Power division of Virginia Electric & Power Company (VEPCO). Allegheny Energy formerly operated in sections of eastern Ohio, until early 2006, when regulatory issues within Ohio forced them to sell the territory to Columbus Southern Power, a division of American Electric Power, Inc. In 2010, Allegheny officially sold their Virginia service area. Counties west of the Blue Ridge Mountains were purchased by Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative of Mount Crawford, Virginia, while counties to the east were sold to Rappahannock Electric Cooperative of Fredericksburg, Virginia. Merger In 1997, Allegheny and Duquesne Light Holding Company (DQE) agreed to a $4.3 billion merger with headquarters remaining in Hagerstown, Maryland. However DQE backed out of the deal by 1998. In February 2010, Allegheny announced plans to merge with FirstEnergy. The merger was completed on February 25, 2011. Customer service Allegheny Power was ranked number one