GREENSBURG — Tracing its roots to a group of companies that once generated electricity to illuminate streetlights and operate electric passenger railways, West Penn Power, a FirstEnergy subsidiary, marked its 100th anniversary March 1.

On that date in 1916, the electric companies that served towns and cities such as Uniontown, Greensburg, Jeanette, Kittanning, Butler and Connellsville consolidated to become West Penn Power, which was headquartered in Pittsburgh until moving to Greensburg in 1955.

The electric railroads run by some of these companies were spun off to create a separate company called West Penn Railways, which, at its peak in 1923, carried 55 million passengers annually.

West Penn Power initially created business for its then-novel product through its retail sales and marketing subsidiary, launching a major electric refrigerator campaign in 1926. The West Penn Appliance Co. also sold electric household items such as lamps, ranges, waffle irons, toasters, heaters and vacuum cleaners.

At its outset, West Penn Power had 24,000 customers with the typical customer using about 200 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per year. Today, it serves more than 720,000 customers, with residential customers typically consuming 12,000 kWh annually, a company news release said.

West Penn Power’s linemen, operations employees and meter reading group recently achieved a milestone by working more than a full year without an Occupational Safety and Health Administration recordable injury, the longest stretch in the utility’s history. In addition, West Penn Power’s substation group has worked two years without an OSHA-recordable injury.

It serves customers in 24 Pennsylvania counties.

Its 10 electric distribution companies have customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York.