Serving Philadelphia for More Than 180 Years
Since 1836, Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) employees have dedicated themselves to serving Philadelphia 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in the coldest of winter days and the hottest of summer months. We thank our customers, current and former employees, and stakeholders for helping us become the essential green utility for the residents and businesses of Philadelphia.
1800's
February 8, 1836 – Forty-six natural gas lights along Philadelphia’s Second Street are lit for the first time by employees of the newly formed Gas Works.
1836 – Philadelphia becomes the nation’s center for finance and industry. Matthias W. Baldwin, a former watchmaker, builds his Old Ironsides locomotive for the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad.
1856 – PGW completes the construction of a new natural gas holder at the company’s Point Breeze Plant in South Philadelphia. At this time, it is the largest in the nation with a total holding capacity of 1.8 million cubic feet of natural gas.
1877 – The American Centennial Exposition in Fairmount Park displays the wonders of the age in agriculture, horticulture and machinery. Natural gas cooking is showcased as a novelty, and 60 miles of pipe supply natural gas for the exhibition’s lights.
1897 – The United Gas Improvement Company signs a 30-year contract with the City of Philadelphia to manage PGW.
Early 1900's
1902 – Natural gas begins to replace coal as the region’s favorite cooking fuel. PGW heavily promotes the new technology, selling up to 500 hundred ranges, priced at $23.50, a day.
1926 – PGW helps the City of Philadelphia become one of the first cities in the United States to actively replace coal-fired hot water heaters with heaters powered by natural gas.
1926 – A three-person Gas Commission is created to regulate PGW.
1932 – The Girl Scouts of America bake and sell their very first cookies in the windows of the Philadelphia Gas and Electric Company’s Arch Street location, which later becomes part of PGW.
1945 – The single-point ignition range is developed in PGW’s laboratory, a first for the industry, to give thousands of customers the ability to conveniently light their burners.
1950 – With natural gas refrigeration gaining favor, PGW becomes the first U.S. utility to operate a refrigerator repair shop.
1955 – The matchless range rises in popularity, and the Northern Liberties Gas Company becomes the last of ten independent gas entities to merge with PGW.
1960's / 1970's
1960 – The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Green Bay Packers at Franklin Field to win the NFL Championship.
1963 – The last 24 gas street lights on Independence Mall—in addition to 1.64 million customer appliances—are converted in six months to burn today’s version of natural gas.
1967 – PGW continues its stellar record of safety, marking 1,000,000 more work hours without a lost time accident.
1970s – PGW begins constructing two, twelve-story Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) storage tanks at the company’s Richmond Plant. Today, they remain among the country’s largest.
1972 – The Philadelphia Facilities Management Corporation (PFMC) is created as a nonprofit corporation to operate and manage PGW under a contract with the City of Philadelphia.
1974 – The Philadelphia Flyers win their first National Hockey League Stanley Cup Championship with a 1-0 victory over the Boston Bruins.
1976 – Philadelphia, which was christened the nations’ birthplace with the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, grabs national attention as the U.S. commemorates its bicentennial.
1980's
1980 – The Philadelphia Phillies defeat the Kansas City Royals 4-2 in a best-of-seven World Series at Veterans Stadium to win the club’s first championship.
1983 – The Philadelphia 76ers win their second NBA Championship by sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers four games to zero.
1983 – PGW wins the American Gas Association’s Merit Award for helping to start the Utility Emergency Services Fund, which assists low income customers in paying their utility bills.
The New Millenium & Today
2000 – The Marcellus Shale formation, which stretches from New York to West Virginia, begins to be widely explored, doubling the country’s known reserves of natural gas while lowering and stabilizing the cost of natural gas for years to come.
2004 – The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Atlanta Falcons 27-10 to advance to the Super Bowl for the first time in 24 years.
2005 – Hurricanes Rita and Katrina slam into the Gulf Coast of the U.S., disrupting the lives of millions of Americans, causing billions of dollars in damage and spiking natural gas prices to record highs.
2007 – The Comcast Center surpasses One Liberty Place to become the city’s tallest building, also making Philadelphia one of only four American cities with two or more buildings over 900 feet.
2008 – The Philadelphia Phillies defeat the Tampa Bay Rays in five games to win their second World Series title.
2009 – PGW launches Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas energy conservation program to help 100,000 customers become more energy efficient.
2010 – PGW wins the American Public Gas Association’s prestigious Marketing and Sales Award and is named for the second time as one of 2010’s best diversity companies by the Diversity/Careers in Engineering and Information Technology magazine.
2011 – Under the leadership of David M. Seltzer, Chairman of the Board; Thomas E. Knudsen, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Craig E. White, Executive Vice President and Acting Chief Operating Officer, PGW begins 2011 with no short-term borrowed funds, collecting 98 cents of every dollar billed, with re-engineered Field Operations and Customer Service Departments generating over $20 million of cost savings and revenue enhancements.
2012 - Building upon the success of its residential Landlord Cooperation Program, PGW developed and launched the Commercial Lien Notification Program (CLNP), which gives important advance notice to eligible, registered landlords, if their rental property is at risk of being liened.
2013 - The "EnergySense" program launched, offering cash grants and rebates to help residential, commercial, and industrial customers save energy and save money.
2014 - The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) awarded PGW a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2014. This is the third straight year that PGW received this prestigious award.
2015 - PGW launched the pilot thermal imaging technology program. The program invited selected customers to opt-in and receive a customized thermal report on their property, including a comparison between their home’s performance and neighborhood averages. Developed in conjunction with Essess, a mobile energy audit firm that specializes in identifying energy waste in buildings using thermal imaging equipped motor vehicles, the pilot program helps to pinpoint the least energy-efficient parts of a home and suggests ways that home performance and comfort can be improved.
2017 - The first phase of Long-Term Infrastructure Improvement Plan (LTIIP) replaced a total of 146.17 miles of cast iron main inventory.
2018 - PGW launched its mobile-friendly Pipeline Improvement map – pgworks.com/worksites to locate infrastructure upgrade projects that are ongoing, or which are scheduled within the next three months. The interactive mapping tool harnesses open city data to share up-to-date, street-level information on planned infrastructure projects, block by block. The map tells users which phase of work the project is at, and the projected timeframe for completion.
2018 - The Philadelphia Eagles won their first Super Bowl, defeating the New England Patriots (41-33) in Super Bowl LII.
2019 - PGW was named an inaugural Employer of Choice by the City of Philadelphia and recognized for diverse hiring practices, strong workforce training education, internships, and other work opportunities for youth, and promoted career advancement for employees.
2020 - Joining the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Methane Challenge Program, PGW committed to lowering methane emissions by replacing at least two percent of cast iron and steel mains with newer, modern pipes, along with new service lines, every year by 2022.
2020 - The COVID-19 pandemic created worldwide disruptions, reshaping how businesses operated. PGW leveraged programs and resources to expand customer assistance and provide support.
2020 - The installation of a Micro-Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit in Northeast Philadelphia marked PGW’s 23rd CHP unit in the city. CHP is energy-efficient technology that generates electricity and captures the heat to provide useful thermal energy, helping the system’s users reduce fuel consumption, save money, and carbon emissions.
January 2021 - PGW opened its online “Marketplace” where customers can receive instant discounts on smart thermostats helping them conserve energy, improve home comfort, and control energy costs.
January 2021 - Seth Shapiro is named PGW President & Chief Executive Officer.
March 2021 - Customer bills received a makeover to provide a clearer view of charges, usage patterns and other relevant information to help better manage customers’ monthly natural gas bills.
June 2021 - PGW announced its latest action plan to reduce methane emissions by 80 percent by 2050. PGW’s Methane Reduction Program accelerated targets by modernizing infrastructure and implementing new technology which, along with PGW’s energy efficiency initiatives, improves the quality of life for all Philadelphians and advances the City’s overall sustainability efforts.
July 2021 - In partnership with Temple University’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC), PGW launched The Energy Innovation Lab, a small business incubator designed to empower energy entrepreneurs whose product or service ideas have the potential to reimagine the future of the energy industry, increase energy efficiency and affordability, and help PGW and the City meet their 2050 climate action goals.
November 2021 - PGW held a ceremonial groundbreaking for its North Operations Center in Northeast Philadelphia. The building, which houses approximately 40 percent of PGW’s employees, features the latest in energy-efficient technology and state-of-the-art training facilities to enhance service for PGW’s residential and business customers, and save the company over $100 million.
2022 - The company launched the PGW My Account Mobile App to customers to make it easier to make payments, manage their energy use, and apply for rebates.
February 2023 - PGW hosted its inaugural Energy Innovation Symposium spearheading conversations among local and national energy experts and offering a blueprint for the City’s clean energy present and future
June 2023 - PGW was provisionally awarded a $10 million Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety and Modernization (NGDISM) grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), established by President Biden’s historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
May 2024 - PGW was provisionally awarded a $75 million Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety and Modernization (NGDISM) grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), established by President Biden’s historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
October 2024 - PGW was awarded final installment of $125 million Federal Grant for Infrastructure Safety.
February 2025 – Philadelphia Eagles win Super Bowl LIX, defeating the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22.
October 2025 - In partnership with the School District of Philadelphia, PGW selected Alderson Engineering to conduct a geothermal site survey and feasibility study at John F. McCloskey Elementary School and the adjacent Dorothy Emanuel Recreation Center in Cedarbrook to assess the feasibility of implementing a closed-loop geothermal system capable of supporting multiple heat pumps for heating and cooling.
September 2025 - Fitch Ratings upgraded PGW Revenue Bonds to ‘A’ from ‘A-’ and assigned a “stable” outlook, marking the second PGW upgrade by Fitch in two years. PGW has its highest ever combination of credit ratings.
