News Releases

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (Oct. 19, 2023) – PPL Electric Utilities announced today that its Grid of the Future infrastructure project application has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to potentially receive up to $49.5 million in federal funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).

PPL Electric’s project was selected through the nationally competitive Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program. The Company’s Grid of the Future project, which represents $99 million in planned investments, includes a combination of hardware and software components that work seamlessly together to deliver grid flexibility to the transmission and distribution systems and provide significant customer benefits, including increased reliability and resiliency while advancing an affordable clean energy transition. Over the next several months, PPL Electric will work with the DOE Grid Deployment Office on the terms of its plan to secure the Pending award negotiations and finalization with the DOE, federal grants.

“The Grid of the Future project builds on over a decade of success in self-healing smart grid innovation,” said President of PPL Electric Utilities Christine Martin. “This funding will allow us to accommodate a rapidly evolving electric grid balancing strong resiliency, low customer costs, and high reliability, all while embracing two-way power flow from distributed energy resources.” 

PPL Electric’s Grid of the Future project recommended by the DOE will:

• Prevent and shorten power outages through the addition of intelligent grid devices, sensors and automation on single-phase and underground networks.
• Improve system reliability and reduce maintenance costs through predictive failure monitoring technology.
• Provide real-time visibility into the grid to identify outages, changes in customer demand and fluctuations in distributed energy resources to automatically reroute power and safely balance the flow of power on the grid.  
• Enable increased connections of distributed energy resources and electric vehicle adoption on the grid through IT enhancements using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

“Across PPL, we’re focused on creating utilities of the future that are agile, innovative and technology-enabled to drive additional value for customers and shareowners and support a reliable, affordable clean energy transition,” said PPL President and Chief Executive Officer Vincent Sorgi. “As we execute our vision, we’re pleased to take advantage of this unique funding opportunity to create savings for our customers and strengthen grid resiliency.”

About the GRIP Program

The funds are part of the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program, which seeks to enhance grid flexibility and improve the resilience of the power system against growing threats of extreme weather and climate change. Funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and administered by DOE’s Grid Deployment Office, the GRIP program leverages federal and private investments to ensure that communities across the nation have a reliable grid that's prepared for extreme weather while also delivering affordable, clean energy and creating robust local opportunities for economic investment and jobs.

About PPL Electric Utilities

PPL Electric Utilities delivers safe, reliable and affordable electricity to approximately 1.5 million homes and businesses in eastern and central Pennsylvania. It regularly ranks among the country’s best utility companies for reliability and customer satisfaction. PPL Electric Utilities is a major employer and an active supporter of the communities it serves. It is a part of the PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) family of companies. Visit pplelectric.com or connect on social media via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for energy efficiency tips, bill help information, guidance on shopping for an electricity supplier, storm updates and more.

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