Smart planting today helps prevent outages tomorrow

Smart planting today helps prevent outages tomorrow

Mar 18, 2026 | Reliability

As the weather warms up and many of us start dreaming about new flowers, trees and shrubs, it’s a great time to think about how your landscaping choices can support both a beautiful yard and reliable electric service. Trees and shrubs do so much good for our environment — they clean the air, offer shade, support wildlife and add natural beauty to our homes. But when planted too close to power lines, they can also cause avoidable outages, especially during storms.

That’s why choosing the right tree or plant for the right place is so important. The trees and shrubs you plant today will continue to grow for decades and giving them the proper space now helps ensure they won’t interfere with power lines or create safety concerns in the future. By selecting the right species and planting them in the right spots, you can help prevent outages, protect your home and keep your landscaping healthy as it matures.

To make planning easier, we offer a list of trees and shrubs that can be safely planted near power lines. It includes options of all sizes — from beautiful flowering trees like Dogwoods and Eastern Redbuds, to larger shrubs such as Black Elderberry and American Witch-Hazel, to smaller favorites like Mountain Laurel, Black Huckleberry and even common berry bushes. You can explore the full list and get more tips at pplelectric.com/KnowBeforeYouGrow.

When it comes to tall-growing trees, be sure to give them plenty of room to reach their mature height. Anything that will grow taller than 25 feet should be planted at least 50 feet away from overhead power lines to prevent issues down the road. It’s also helpful to keep ground-mounted transformers clear of any new vegetation. Doing so ensures our crews can work safely and quickly whenever maintenance or repairs are needed.

Spring planting often means digging too, so don’t forget one of the most important steps: calling 811 at least three business days before you start. This free service marks underground utilities, including buried power lines, so you or your landscapers can work safely and avoid damaging critical infrastructure.

If you’re maintaining existing trees on your property, remember that pruning near power lines should always be left to trained professionals. Working close to electric lines is extremely dangerous and could result in serious injury or death. For work near the service wire that runs from our pole to your home, we can temporarily de-energize the line and lower it so you or your contractor can safely handle the job. Just give us a call at 1-800-342-5775 at least five business days before the work begins.

And if you see our crews trimming trees or working on equipment in your neighborhood, please keep a safe distance. A little space helps keep both you and our employees safe while they complete important reliability work.

If you’re looking for extra guidance or inspiration as you plan your spring projects, the Arbor Day Foundation offers helpful tools and resources for choosing the right tree or shrub and selecting the best location for planting. It’s a great place to learn more, visit the Arbor Day Foundation’s website.

A little planning goes a long way — for your safety, your yard and the reliability of the electric service we provide to you and your neighbors. Together, we can ensure that the planting we do today grows and blooms well into the future.

Adding to your landscape? Plant the right tree in the right place

Adding to your landscape? Plant the right tree in the right place

Mar 30, 2025 | Reliability, Safety and Security

Trees and shrubs are a critical part of our environment and provide many benefits, from absorbing pollutants and cleaning the air we breathe to providing shelter and food for wildlife.

When adding trees to your landscape, it’s important to plant the right tree in the right place. Choosing trees that won’t grow into or fall onto power lines when they grow to their maximum height helps prevent tree-related outages. This generally means large trees should be planted at least 50 feet away from electric utility wires.

Large trees close to power lines can pose a threat, particularly during damaging storms, when branches or whole trees can fall and take down power lines and cause outages.

We’re committed to providing the safest, most reliable and most affordable power to our 1.5 million customers, and we work year-round to prune trees that can cause disruptive power outages. Customers can do their part by following the right tree, right place approach.

We don’t prune or remove trees on or beneath the service wire between your house and our utility poles. We can de-energize the wire and lower it to the ground for work to be done. Call us at 1-800-342-5775 at least five business days in advance of the work.

Here are some other things to remember when adding trees or other vegetation on your property:

  • Avoid planting trees and other vegetation near power lines when possible. Check out the graphic on the right for recommended spacing between trees and power lines.
  • Click here for a list of recommended tree and shrub species for planting near power lines.
  • Plant tall-growing trees at least 50 feet from power lines.
  • Don’t plant anything near neighborhood transformers.
  • Call 811 at least three business days before digging to make sure the area is checked for underground utilities, including underground power lines. For more on safe digging, visit www.pa1call.org.
  • Have qualified professionals prune trees near power lines. Contact with power lines can cause serious injury or death and electricity can “flash over” if someone gets too close.
  • Visit the Arbor Day Foundation’s website (https://www.arborday.org/planning-selection-location) for additional resources and information about tree planting.