If there’s one thing Meghan Fonda has learned as part of her job at PPL Electric Utilities, it’s to be prepared for the unexpected every day.
It’s practically part of her job description.
As an emergency planning supervisor for the Emergency Preparedness department, Fonda is responsible for helping to keep employees prepared for any emergency or storm that may occur in the utility’s 29-county Pennsylvania service area. She also helps prepare her co-workers for a safe and swift response when power outages occur.
“My job is all about making things better for our 1.5 million customers,” said Fonda, who earned a mechanical engineering degree from Florida State University. “It’s all about being able to restore power in a safe and timely manner when our customers experience outages. Each day, I’m making sure we’re prepared.”
Fonda, in her fifth year at PPL Electric, has a wide range of responsibilities, from making sure employees are familiar with their storm response roles and keeping them up to date on training to maintaining procedures and relationships with companies that provide assistance when PPL Electric needs to supplement its workforce to help restore power when severe storms strike. She also keeps in close contact with emergency management organizations.
Fonda is one of hundreds of employees who have an emergency/storm response role in addition to their normal job. We always have a team of employees on call to respond at a moment’s notice when outages occur. That includes engineers, lineworkers, damage assessors, environmental staff and logistical personnel.
When storms and storm damage are imminent, we activate storm teams with additional personnel in the field, control centers and customer service centers across our 29-county service territory. When we activate these storm and emergency response teams, their priority is to assist with our storm restoration work.
We participate in training exercises each month throughout the year to help ensure our employees are well versed in their emergency response roles. That regular training includes drills that help us stay familiar with what we need to do in cases of storm-caused outages, but also other emergencies, such as wildfires.
We also have staff closely monitoring weather forecasts and consulting with meteorologists to ensure we’re well prepared for any storm activity that may cause damage to our power delivery system.
“I really do like the emergency response aspect,” Fonda said. “It’s rewarding to know that the work we’re doing each day is benefitting our customers in some way. And whatever issue comes our way, we’ll be as prepared as we can be to meet it head on.”
For more about how you can prepare for storms, check out this video. And for more about how we respond to power outages, click here.
An incoming storm is expected to bring heavy rain and winds across our service territory beginning Thursday evening. The storm has potential to bring 40+ mph winds and up to 1.5 inches of rainfall. The rain is expected to taper off on Friday, but high winds are forecast through Saturday evening.
Our storm response includes:
Activating storm teams with additional personnel working in the field, control centers and customer service across our territory.
16-hour shifts staggered for around-the-clock coverage.
Bringing in more than 600 lineworkers from outside our company to assist in restoration efforts should they be needed.
As we continue to monitor the forecast and prepare for the storm, we’re offering the following tips and reminders to help customers prepare and stay safe.
Stay Connected:
Report power outages online at pplelectric.com or text “Outage” to TXTPPL (898775).
Follow us on Facebook, X (Twitter) and Instagram for restoration updates.
Check the status of an outage as well as estimated restoration times online at pplelectric.com/outage.
Sign up for alerts to stay connected and receive outage updates at pplelectric.com/alerts.
Get Prepared:
Make sure mobile devices are fully charged before a storm event.
Have an emergency kit with food, water, medication and any pet supplies needed.
People who have medical conditions requiring electricity should create a plan in case of an outage or emergency.
Check on elderly family members, neighbors and others who may need assistance during an outage period.
Stay Safe:
Should you encounter a downed wire at any time, assume it’s energized and stay away. Report downed wires to us or local emergency response agencies.
If using a portable generator during a power outage, never operate the generator in an enclosed area, like a garage, where deadly carbon monoxide fumes could accumulate.
Remember that candles can start fires. Always use flashlights instead.
If you lose power, turn off any appliances that were on when the power went off.
For your safety and ours, please keep a safe distance from our crews.
We will continue to update this page as more information becomes available.
September is recognized annually as National Preparedness Month—an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of preparing for disasters and emergencies.
What’s more, for the third year in a row, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting an above-average hurricane season in the Atlantic.
Pennsylvania doesn’t have a coastline, but we can still be impacted by hurricanes, tropical storms and other bouts of severe weather. We want you to know that when mother nature lashes out, we’re ready to respond to power outages as safely and quickly as possible, around the clock, to get the lights back on.
Not only are we prepared to respond to outages, we’ve taken steps to help avoid them altogether, despite the weather.
Like we always say: The best outage is an outage that never happens in the first place.
Smart grid devices are just one part of our investments to continuously improve the reliability of your electric service. Other work includes new power lines and substations; stronger, more storm-resistant poles; and trimming more trees. Find out more about the ways we’re strengthening the electric delivery system to meet your expectations for safe, reliable service at pplelectric.com/reliability.
Be prepared. Stay informed.
Have you managed your alerts recently? We’ve made it easier than ever for you to stay informed during severe weather with our automated alerts. You can receive information regarding outages, repair crew status and estimated restoration times, all via text message, phone or email. Pick your preferences at pplelectric.com/alerts. And remember that you can report or check on an outage at pplelectric.com/outage.
Plus, we use social media to provide storm updates and share tips on how to stay safe before, during and after storms. Follow us @PPLElectric for all the latest news and updates.
Customers who have been without power for 24 hours or more as a result of storms can now purchase ice and water from any local vendor and send us the receipts. If you send us your receipts, we’ll credit your account.
Each customer can purchase a maximum of three 10-pound bags of ice and three gallons of water per day.
Additional purchases will not be eligible for an account credit.
We’ve never been afraid to experiment with new technology or implement innovative ideas if it means more reliable service for our customers.
So as soon as battery technology became more advanced, our engineers were excited to launch a program within the PPL territory, specifically along a line in the Harrisburg region that experienced outages in the past.
These batteries, connected to the grid, will instantly kick-in when customers are out of power and can keep the lights on for 6 hours or more!
The Harrisburg battery project is the first of its kind on the PPL grid and we’re already looking into other regions that would benefit from this technology.
This innovative solution is a huge plus for power quality and reliability for our customers. And batteries are just the start of ensuring a safer, more reliable and resilient grid.
