News Releases

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (Sept. 12, 2018) — PPL Electric Utilities is preparing for Hurricane Florence and is bolstering available manpower to respond to potential power outages from the storm.

A direct hit by Hurricane Florence is not forecast for Pennsylvania, but rain may cause flooding and already saturated ground could contribute to tree-related outages.

All employees – including hundreds of line workers, electricians and other skilled technicians – are ready to respond if needed. PPL also has more than 200 additional workers – including contract line crews and workers to clear downed trees – ready to help restore power to customers, if needed.

“While Florence is projected to make landfall well south of the PPL service territory, we are ready to respond should it have an impact on our area,” said Steph Raymond, vice president, Distribution Operations. “As with any storm situation, we have a detailed plan in place to respond. We will work around the clock to restore power to affected customers. We’ve been working for years to strengthen our grid to reduce outages and help us restore power more quickly.”

We’ve made our grid stronger and smarter to better withstand storms
Over the past decade, PPL Electric Utilities has made significant investments to make the grid safer, stronger, smarter and more resilient.
Examples include:

• Installing smart grid devices at thousands of locations throughout our 29-county delivery area to sense outages, report their location and enable quick rerouting of power, when possible, to restore customers more quickly. Smart grid equipment reduces storm-related outages by 20 percent.
• Removing and trimming trees along more than 10,000 miles of power lines each year. Trees are the biggest cause of outages in storms.
• Replacing aging wooden transmission poles with stronger steel poles that can better withstand storms.
• Building new substations to make the power grid more reliable and secure.
• Replacing older circuit breakers with more reliable equipment.

Stay safe and be prepared
Safety is always the top priority at PPL Electric Utilities. We urge our customers to make it their top priority as well, and to be prepared.

• Stay away from downed wires – always treat any wires on the ground as if they are energized.
• Keep generators far away from buildings and never operate them in an enclosed space like a garage.
• Prepare a storm kit – gather the supplies you might need for a prolonged outage, including flashlights, batteries, canned food, bottled water, medication and a first aid kit.
• Charge your cell phones, tablets and laptops.
• If you rely on medical equipment or have special personal needs, plan what you would do in the event of an extended power outage at your home.

More detailed information on staying safe in storms can be found on PPL’s website at pplelectric.com/safety.

Get the latest information on power outages
You can report an outage online at pplelectric.com/outage, by calling 1-800-DIAL-PPL (1-800-342-5775), or by texting “Outage” to TXTPPL (898775).

In addition, PPL Alerts keeps customers up to date on power outages and estimated restoration times. Customers can choose to be notified by email, phone call, text message or all three. Manage your alerts preferences at pplelectric.com/outage.

Information on power outages is available on the company’s online outage map at. Customers can search by address to view outages at a particular location. The map also contains estimated restoration times and repair status when that information becomes available.

Please note that exact estimated restoration times may not be available for some power outages until crews have had a chance to assess the damage. As soon as estimates are available, they will be posted on the PPL outage map and included in outage alerts.

PPL Electric Utilities provides electric delivery service to more than 1.4 million homes and businesses in Pennsylvania and ranks among the best utility companies in the country for customer service and reliability. PPL Electric Utilities is a major employer in the communities it serves. It is a subsidiary of PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL). For more information visit www.pplelectric.com.