Hit Hard By Copper Wire Thieves, PPL Fights Back

A red/cyan anaglyph of a reel of tinned copper 24swg wire (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With its substations increasingly targeted by copper thieves, PPL is upping security and putting scrap dealers who may receive the stolen wiring on alert.

The utility has suffered about two dozen copper wire thefts throughout its Pennsylvania service area since the start of the year.  The utility’s Lancaster and northeast Pennsylvania service areas have been hit especially hard.

Last month, according to media reports, thieves broke into a Wilkes-Barre area substation just after midnight and stole more than 250 feet of copper wire used to ground the substation.  Scrap yards pay about $3 a pound for copper wire, according to Internet scrap pricing websites.

It’s a problem being faced by utilities across the country.  The nationwide spike in copper thefts dates to about 2008 when prices hit $4 a pound, topping out at $4.50 in 2011, according to the American Public Power Association‘s magazine, Public Power.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-pa-ppl-copper-thefts-20130606,0,2376611.story

Electricity Costs Increase For PECO Customers

The 473,000 PECO customers who have made the switch to an alternative energy supplier must have felt pretty good about their choice Monday.

“PECO’s energy delivery rates have not changed but the price we are paying to purchase electricity for customers who have not switched to an alternative provider has gone up 21.5 percent from the third to the fourth quarter,” said PECO spokeswoman Cathy Engle Menendez.

“The price is adjusted quarterly and tied directly to the wholesale cost of electricity.  We have no control over this price.  It’s a pass-through.”

Read more: http://business-news.thestreet.com/the-mercury/story/electricity-costs-increase-peco-customers/1

Construction Begins On 70-Megawatt Wind Farm In Northern Lycoming County

Image via Wikipedia

WILLIAMSPORT, PA — Seven years after the project was announced, a subsidiary of Duke Energy has started construction on a 70 megawatt wind farm on Laurel Hill Ridge off Route 14 in northern Lycoming County.
    
Half the pads for the 30 turbines have been poured, and Laurel Hill Wind Energy of Rutland, Vt., anticipates the more than $150 million project will be in production by late summer, spokesman Robert Charleboif said Tuesday.

Read more: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/01/construction_begins_on_70-mega.html