Sep 1, 2022 | Community Involvement
Keeping power flowing is no easy job. Our lineworkers are safety focused, highly trained and dedicated. They have unique skills. And it never hurts to show off those skills, especially when it’s for a good cause.
This summer, PPL Electric employees competed in the 10th annual Lineman Rodeo, sponsored by the National Sisterhood United for Journeymen Lineman (NSUJL), in Hazleton. The two-day event raised funds for the families of fallen and injured IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) lineworkers and other electric distribution company employees.
Our team competed against other lineworkers in events designed to show their field skills. They took part in the Speed Climb, Hurtman Rescue, Obstacle Course, Three-Phase Transfer, Switch Changeout and other events.
When all was said and done, our lineworkers and their teams made us proud, placing in two events. Congratulations to all the participants!
Aug 19, 2022 | Community Involvement
It’s Little League World Series time in Williamsport. That means it’s time for PPL Electric to step up to help make the international event a success! Here’s how we do it:
Volunteers for safety: About 30 of our employees and their family members participated in the Grand Slam Parade on August 15. They volunteered as “safety walkers,” walking alongside members of the 16 Little League teams in the parade and keeping the young athletes safe.
Always be prepared: We love Pennsylvania, and we want to make sure the lights are shining bright when events take place. That’s why we work closely with local event leaders to prepare, and then we work hard to ensure that the lights stay on, and the event goes off without a hitch.
In preparation for the 2022 tournament, we performed inspections of our facilities that serve the Little League complex, met with LLWS representatives prior to the event, inspected lines in the area for any potential tree hazards and more. Our crews are also on hand and ready in case they need to respond to any power issues during the event.
We are grateful to our employees for their hard work, preparation and participation in this exciting international sporting event. Play ball!
May 24, 2022 | Reliability
Our mission is to provide safe and reliable electric service to power your lives. That’s why we’re always working on reliability efforts, like trimming trees and investing in stronger poles.
Recently, our crews in Monroe County completed a major project to relocate powerlines that were causing reliability issues. The lines ran through heavily wooded areas that were hard to access, making it difficult for us to restore power after storms.
We also added larger and more storm-resistant poles and a state-of-the-art device to help prevent outages.
The project took nearly 1,000 hours to complete!
Want to learn more about our reliability investments? Check out pplelectric.com/reliability and follow us on social media @PPLElectric.
Jan 3, 2022 | Reliability
When there’s a problem — or a fault — on a power line, it can cause power outages for our customers. But thanks to a game-changing new system, these problems impact fewer customers than ever. The new system, created by our own engineering teams and vendor partners, uses smart devices that interrupt faults remotely. They’re called “vacuum reclosers.”
We place them on power lines to monitor the flow of electricity. When a sensor on a line detects a problem, the nearest recloser automatically cuts power from that point in the line. Instead of every customer on the line losing power, only customers downstream of the recloser device are impacted. Then, our crews work as safely and quickly as possible to restore power to everyone who is out.
In November 2021, we installed the first vacuum recloser on a transmission line and plan to install more of these devices at locations that will provide the most benefit to our customers.
This is just one example of our commitment to innovate and invest in technologies that improve reliability.
Oct 29, 2021 | Reliability
We work every day to keep your electric bills as low as possible. But paying any bill — especially these days — isn’t fun. That’s why we want you to know what you get for your energy dollar.
Let’s start with one of the most important aspects of our jobs: providing reliable electric service. Our electric grid consists of thousands of miles of poles and wires that deliver electricity to your homes, as well as the state-of-the-art technologies that manage them. Every year, we invest in systems and activities to keep our grid on the leading edge so we can keep your lights on.
Here are just three examples of the many reliability initiatives underway throughout our 29-county service territory.
Vegetation Management
Fallen tree branches are the number one cause of storm-related power outages. That’s why our crews work hard to identify, trim and remove trees and tree limbs before they cause problems. Our maintenance program is designed so we can trim the right trees at the right times to prevent outages. We use data to identify the areas that have the highest probability of tree-related damage and act accordingly.
Smart Grid Investments
Back in the day, when there was an outage on one of our lines, most customers on that damaged line lost power. Now, thanks to an impressive combination of automated sensors and switches, coupled with an advanced software system, our grid can reroute power automatically to limit the number of customers impacted by an outage. Plus, the system can shorten outage duration. That means an outage that once could have lasted hours becomes a momentary blip. You might have to reset your digital clocks, but you won’t have to break out your flashlights.
Line Monitoring
Every day, we proactively monitor the thousands of miles of lines that deliver electricity to our Pennsylvania customers. We’re looking for trouble spots, equipment damage and any other issues that could cause you to lose power. We rely on our dedicated crew to identify and report issues, but for some of our assets we also use unique methods, like camera-equipped drones, to keep an eye out for problems. Drones capture images of lines and transformers. They do thermal imaging to catch hotspots that can signal future problems. They also improve our vegetation management program by measuring the distance from trees to power lines, allowing us to schedule trimming before it’s too late.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. To stay up to date on our reliability investments, follow us on social media.
