PECO is an energy company founded in 1881 and incorporated in 1929. It became part of Exelon Corporation in 2000 when it merged with Unicom. The company has approximately 2 300 employees; its call center and field craft personnel are members of IBEW Local 614. PECO serves 1.6 million electric and 485 000 natural gas customers; it is the largest combination utility in Pennsylvania and has a franchise utility service area of 2 100 square miles (5 400 km) with a population of 3.8 million people.