Mr Gabbard, who has served as senior vice president of merchant trading operations of Delaware-based Conectiv Energy since 2005, will hold responsibility for PPL EnergyPlus’s energy trading operation.

As senior vice president of PPL EnergyPlus, he will report to Joe Hopf, president of PPL EnergyPlus, along with Gene Alessandrini, senior vice president for marketing.

Mr Gabbard, who will join PPL on June 5, 2008, will have responsibility for PPL’s two trading floors, one in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and the other in Butte, Montana. He also will be responsible for acquiring fossil fuel supplies for PPL’s power plants.

William Spence, PPL’s executive vice president and COO, said: We are very pleased to add someone with Rob’s depth of both management and market experience to the PPL EnergyPlus team.