Susquehanna-Roseland Power Line, A $1.4 Billion Project, Switched On

The long-anticipated Susquehanna-Roseland power line was fully energized this week for the first time.

The 150-mile-long, 500-kilovolt line links PPL Electric Utilities’s switchyard at its Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Salem Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, to Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.’s switching station in Roseland, Essex County, New Jersey.

It cost $1.4 billion and is designed to bolster electricity reliability for the power grid run by Pennsylvania-based PJM Interconnection that serves 61 million people in all or parts of 13 states plus the District of Columbia.

“It’s all about reliability,” PPL Electric Utilities spokesman Paul Wirth said. “It prevents overloads on other power lines and gives electricity another path to travel, especially during period periods when it’s extremely hot or extremely cold.

Read more:

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/breaking-news/index.ssf/2015/05/susquehanna-roseland_power_lin_4.html

Power Outage Hits Thousands Of Homes, Park City Center

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A malfunction at a PPL substation in East Petersburg knocked out power to thousands and created traffic backups on area roads Thursday afternoon.

PPL spokesman Kurt Blumenau said a tripped transformer sparked the 4:30 p.m. outage that affected about 5,200 homes and businesses in Manheim and East Hempfield townships as well as a portion of the western part of Lancaster city.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/669443_Power-outage-hits-thousands-of-homes–Park-City-Center.html#ixzz1xsA37GOl

PPL Plans To Upgrade Electric System

As promised after storms disabled the regional power grid three times in 2011, PPL Electric Utilities on Thursday announced the start of a $35 million project to upgrade its distribution system in southern and western Berks County and parts of Lancaster and Chester counties.

During public hearings in Harrisburg and Reading this year called by state Sen. Judy Schwank, a Ruscombmanor Township Democrat, and state Rep. Thomas R. Caltagirone, a Reading Democrat, PPL officials promised an overall $3 billion upgrade to its electric grid, which covers parts of Berks and 29 other counties.

Electric customers in the project area are served by a network of 69-kilovolt transmission lines that are nearing their capacity, PPL officials said.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=378229

PPL Residential Rate To Drop 10.7 Percent

PPL Electric Utilities said today it will cut its residential rates by 10.7 percent, effective March 1.

It will be the fifth consecutive rate reduction since PPL rates spiked nearly 30 percent in January 2010.

In total, the series of cuts will have nearly erased that record increase two years ago.

PPL said it’s been able to trim rates because it’s paying less to obtain power on the wholesale market, a trend it foresees continuing

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/591068_PPL-residential-rate-to-drop-10-7-percent.html#ixzz1n3kvOn3b

PPL To Invest $664 Million In Electric Grid

PPL Electric Utilities, which suffered extensive power outages during two storms in 2011, plans to invest $664 million this year in the electric grid serving eastern and central Pennsylvania, including much of the Lehigh Valley.

The investment represents nearly a 50 percent increase over what it spent last year on new transmission lines, poles and substations, the company announced Friday.

More than 400,000 PPL customers lost power in August after the remnants of Hurricane Irene swept through eastern Pennsylvania. And an October snowstorm cut power to 388,000 PPL customers, nearly half of whom were in the Lehigh Valley. Nearly 10,000 in the Lehigh Valley had no electricity for six days after the snow.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-ppl-grid-investment-20120217,0,4685365.story

Tens Of Thousands Still Without Power In Berks, Lehigh and Northampton Counties

Here is a list of the latest figures on how many people are still without power in the Allentown, Bethlehem and Reading areas:

31,425 Lehigh County PPL

8,732 Northampton County PPL

1,475 Lehigh County Met Ed

4,608 Northampton County Met Ed

27,060 Berks County Med Ed