July is kicking off our first heat wave of the summer. But we’re here to keep you safe, cool and informed.
Extreme heat can be dangerous, but you don’t have to face it alone.
Steve is sharing three ways our crews — and you, too — can stay safe as we head into the holiday weekend.
If you’re looking for a break from the heat, we’re also sharing cooling center locations available across our region.
Updated July 4: We’ve added new locations across Bucks, Lehigh, Northampton, York, Berks and Lackawanna counties, and removed locations that have closed for the season’s first heat event.
Can’t find a location near you? Call 211.
PA 211 can connect you with the nearest open cooling location anywhere in our service territory — free, confidential and available 24/7, including holidays.
City of Allentown Pools — Cedar Beach, Mack and Irving
Hours: Daily, noon to 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
City of Allentown Spray Parks — Bucky Boyle, Clyde E. Bosket Sr. and Old Allentown Fairgrounds
Hours: Daily, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Northampton County
Northampton County senior centers are open as cooling stations on dangerously hot days during regular weekday hours, and all are accessible via LANTA transportation:
Basilio Huertas Senior Center
520 E. 4th St., Bethlehem, PA 18015
Hours: Weekdays, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Cherryville Senior Center
4131 Lehigh Dr., Cherryville, PA 18035
Hours: Weekdays, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Silver Connections Senior Center
901 Washington St., Easton, PA 18042
Hours: Weekdays, opens at 9 a.m.
Wayne County
Honesdale Public Library
1406 Main St., Honesdale, PA 18431
Hours: Daily, until 6 p.m. (call ahead to confirm holiday hours)
For additional cooling locations in Wayne County, dial 211 or text your ZIP code to 898-211.
York County
LifePath Christian Ministries
367 W. Market St., York, PA 17401
Hours: Extended cooling hours through July 5, 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Overnight shelter hotline: 717-472-8911
Hanover Area Council of Churches
136 Carlisle St., Hanover, PA 17331
Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Berks County
The Berks County Area Agency on Aging has designated its senior centers as cooling locations during their normal weekday business hours. Free fans are available for adults over 60 at the Mohnton senior center.
For locations and hours, call the Berks County Area Agency on Aging at 610-478-6500 or visit berksaging.org
Lackawanna County
Lackawanna County senior community centers are open as cooling locations during regular weekday hours:
Scranton Senior Community Center — 1004 Jackson St., Scranton — Monday – Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Fallbrook Senior Community Center — 185 Fallbrook Ave., Carbondale — Monday – Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Hillside Senior Community Center — 1151 Winola Rd., Clarks Summit — Monday – Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Dunmore Senior Community Center — 1414 Monroe Ave., Dunmore — Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Throop Senior Community Center — 500 Sanderson St., Throop — Monday – Friday, from 10 a.m.
Mid Valley Senior Community Center — 310 Church St., Jessup — Monday and Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
North Pocono Senior Community Center — 6 John J. Michaels Dr., Covington Township — Monday – Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Taylor Senior Community Center — 700 S. Main St., Taylor — Monday – Wednesday, noon to 3 p.m.
Many county cooling locations operate on weekday schedules. If you need a cool place to go on a weekend or holiday, call 211 or visit an air-conditioned public space like a library, mall or community center near you.
Summer heat and increased energy use can bring extra stress. We’re here to help you stay in control.
Our Bill Toolkit makes it easier to manage your bill, understand your energy use and find help when you need it. Whether you’re planning ahead or looking for support today, you’ll find simple tools and resources designed to meet you where you are.
Since no two households are the same, our Bill Toolkit offers a wide variety of resources for all families, regardless of income.
Choose the solutions that work for you and save this summer.
Manage your bill.
Take steps now to make your payments more predictable and avoid surprises later in the season.
Budget Billing: Enroll for more predictable payments.
PPL Alerts: Stay informed with alerts about Price to Compare changes and bill due reminders.
Shop for a supplier: Review offers from third-party suppliers and choose one that’s right for you.
Manage your energy use.
Small changes can make a big difference, especially as summer usage begins to climb.
Explore Energy Analyzer: See when, where and how your home uses energy so you can learn where to use less and save more.
Find No-Cost Energy Saving Tips: Easy ways to stay cool while using less electricity.
Schedule a Virtual Assessment: Kickstart your energy efficiency journey and get personalized recommendations with a no-cost home energy assessment.
Get help paying, now.
If paying your bill is a challenge, support is available for all households.
Set up a payment arrangement: Pay off a past due balance over time.
Get assistance: See if you’re eligible for fixed monthly payments and debt forgiveness with OnTrack.
Apply for a grant: Operation HELP offers cash grants toward your electric bill, if eligible.
Summer’s highest energy use is still ahead and taking a few steps now can make a real difference in the months to come. Explore our tools, plan ahead and feel more confident heading into the season.
Earlier this month, we submitted a joint petition for non-unanimous settlement to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) requesting approval for an increase in base distribution rates. The proposed settlement reflects months of public review and compromise, ensuring customers receive safe, reliable electric service while maintaining strong protections for affordability.
What does this mean for you?
We know any increase to your electric bill matters. That’s why we’re committed to operating efficiently and supporting you with a variety of resources. In fact, this is our first request to change distribution rates since 2016 — while managing our expenses nearly 25% below the rate of inflation. The result: we held the line on customer costs in a way that very few utilities in this country can point to.
If approved, this settlement includes investments in a stronger system, enhanced assistance for vulnerable customers, expanded payment flexibility and a two-year pause on additional base rate increases.
See how these smart investments are set to boost your service and make your power more reliable:
Building a stronger electric system: We’re planning targeted investments — stronger poles, upgraded wires, smart grid technology — designed to reduce outages and restore power faster in the future as severe weather intensifies. These improvements help avoid higher costs over time by reducing damage and disruptions.
Expanding assistance for customers who need it most: We’re expanding support for vulnerable customers by increasing hardship fund bill credits, improving access to assistance programs, eliminating reconnection fees, streamlining the return of security deposits and boosting the annual low-income weatherization budget.
Supporting responsible large load growth: Large‑load customers, such as data centers, place unique demands on the system. A new large-load rate class ensures our large users make long-term financial and usage commitments to protect other customers from additional infrastructure costs, while also providing $11 million in annual support for low‑income residential customers.
Adding small business protections: We plan to mitigate cost impacts of net-metered distributed generation and introduces new, flexible payment options for small businesses.
Together, these measures are intended to balance necessary system improvements with protections that help customers manage costs.
Our commitment to accountability
We know you work hard for your money and affordability and reliability remain core priorities for us.The PUC closely reviews and monitors how utilities invest customer dollars, and this settlement includes additional reporting and establishes service expectations to ensure you see real improvements and benefits.
We are committed to operating efficiently, managing costs responsibly and being transparent about the outcomes customers can expect from these investments.
The post-holiday blues have just set in, and the winter bills are already piling up. The holiday season — with all its joy and happiness — can be expensive. We feel it, too.
But if you’re receiving higher-than-usual utility bills, we have some explanations, as well as resources to help you conserve and save throughout the rest of this cold winter.
Check out a few reasons your bill may run higher in January:
Colder temps
You may not recall the average temps during the hustle and bustle of the season, but the last month has been pretty chilly across Pennsylvania. If you have electric heat or use electric space heaters to supplement your primary heating source, it’s likely they were working overtime when the temps dropped. Check out ourEnergy Analyzer at pplelectric.com/EnergyAnalyzer to see how colder temps affect your usage and discover ways to save.
Holiday hosting and usage
Check out the daily usage graph for your most recent bill. Go back to the first day of your billing cycle and try to remember if the days between were any different than those in prior months. For instance, did you:
Host any holiday gatherings during the bill cycle in question?
Hang lots of Christmas lights or decorate your front lawn with inflatables?
Have extra visitors in your home plugging in additional electronics?
Cook a big family dinner or bake holiday cookies?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, they could be reasons your usage spiked.
The breakdown on bill cycles
Did you know an average bill cycle may range from 26 to 35 days? The number of days billed depends on a variety of things, such as the number of business days within the month. Bills for electric use in November and December tend to have more days than those during the rest of the year because of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday breaks. This may lead to a higher January bill even if, on average, you were using the same amount of electricity per day.
Budget Billing can help prevent the seasonal swings in your bill. The Budget program evens out your bill over 12 months and makes your payments more predictable. We’ll review your usage every three months to see if your budget amount needs adjustments. At the end of 12 months on the budget, we’ll settle the difference between your actual energy use and the amount you were billed. If you used more, we’ll bill you the difference. If you used less, we’ll credit your account.
Explore your options to save
Our Seasonal Savings Solutions offer resources to help you manage your bill, become more energy efficient and get payment assistance when you need it. Find the right combination of options to help you offset higher winter bills.
Manage your energy use:
Maintaining your energy use is an effective way to manage costs at any income level. From no-cost and low-cost tips to tools, programs and rebates on energy-efficient products, we can help you conserve and save.
Manage your bill:
With options like making your bill more predictable, finding tools to track your hourly, daily or monthly electricity use, setting bill alerts, shopping for a supplier and requesting more time to pay, choose the resources that are right for you.
Get help paying:
If you need help paying your bill, we’re here for you. We have programs and payment arrangements to help every family in need, regardless of income.
If you use more electricity over the winter, you’re not alone. Find the right combination of options to help you offset higher bills at pplelectric.com/SeasonalSavings.
Strong winds caused extensive damage across our system, resulting in more than 88,000 outages. Our crews continue to work as safely and efficiently as possible and have restored power to more than 74,400 customers as of about 2 p.m. today.
We know how difficult it is to be without power. That’s why we have hundreds of personnel responding to the storm, providing both field-based and back-office emergency response operations across our service territory. This includes lineworkers, foresters, damage assessors and call center staff. We also have crews from outside our region assisting PPL Electric crews in the restoration efforts.
Since the storm began, there have been nearly 1,000 locations of damage on our system. We’re assessing remaining damage and have assigned estimated restoration times for areas in our territory. Because of the scope of repairs, full restoration will continue through Friday, although many customers will get power restored sooner.
Here are some ways you can stay safe and informed while our restoration efforts are underway:
Stay connected:
Report power outages online at pplelectric.com or text “Outage” to TXTPPL (898775).
Sign up for alerts to stay connected and receive outage updates at pplelectric.com/alerts.
Check the status of an outage and estimated restoration times online at pplelectric.com/outage.
For information on storm safety, outage restoration priorities and more, visit pplelectric.com/outage.
Stay safe:
Remember, should you encounter a downed wire at any time, assume it’s energized and stay away. Report downed wires to PPL Electric or local emergency response agencies.
Never operate a portable generator in an enclosed area, like a garage, where deadly carbon-monoxide fumes could accumulate.
Always use flashlights instead of candles as they can start fires.
Turn off appliances that were on when the power went off.
Create alternate plans if you have a medical condition that relies on electricity or call 9-1-1 for assistance.
Check on elderly family members, neighbors and others who may need assistance during an outage period.
For your safety and ours, please keep a safe distance from our crews.
Stay warm:
Keep warm air in by using your doors as infrequently as possible, and close off unoccupied rooms.
Close blinds to keep warm air in.
Our crews will not stop until every customer has their power restored. For updates, visit pplelectric.com/outage.
