PPL Continues to Improve Reliability
PPL Electric Utilities has made significant improvements to customer reliability in recent years through line clearing, capital investments, and new technology. Assisted by mild weather, 2015 service reliability was the best in more than 20 years across its 29 county service area. The company plans to invest nearly $1 billion per year over the next five years to further improve reliability.
An overview of the company’s service performance was provided to business and community leaders at the Pine Barn Inn recently by Greg Dudkin, President of PPL Electric Utilities. Mr. Dudkin explained that the company is responsible for transporting electricity from power generation facilities to 1.4 million customers in Pennsylvania. Once a part of PPL Corporation, the power plant at Washingtonville and the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station are now owned by Talen Energy, created in June of last year.
According to Dudkin, PPL customers experienced 30 percent fewer outages than in 2007, with tree-related outages down 37 percent compared to an average of the previous 10 years. The company expects to improve overall reliability another 15 percent. In addition to line clearing, reliability has improved through installation of new lines, rebuilding older lines, and installing technology to allow power to be rerouted automatically in a matter of minutes during an outage. During an outage, customers receive alerts and have access to outage maps and better estimated restoration times. These resources are available at www.pplelectric.com.
Dudkin also talked about their energy conservation programs. In the past six years, customers have saved enough electricity to power over 240,000 homes for a year, and saving $218 million annually. Programs are available for residential, government, non-profit, education, commercial and industrial customers. The company and its employees continue to be highly engaged in the community. More than $2 million has been donated to United Ways by their employees, retirees, and corporate giving. Employees volunteered over 15,000 company-supported hours last year. PPL Corporation has supported over 90 organizations in the Susquehanna region, including the Chamber, its Foundation, and other economic development organizations.
Mr. Dudkin’s presentation is available here.