News Releases

Two PPL Electric Utilities projects designed to boost service reliability in Monroe and Carbon counties are now in operation and serving customers.

Together, the Effort Mountain and Appenzell projects represent an investment of more than $15 million in the region’s electric delivery system.

Both projects include new substations and new connections to an existing transmission line in the region. A substation switches, changes or regulates electric voltage, often reducing that voltage for local distribution to homes and businesses.

The Effort Mountain project is located in the area of Effort, Jonas and Sun Valley in Chestnuthill and Polk townships in Monroe County and Penn Forest Township in Carbon County. Crews built the new substation on Reynolds Road in Chestnuthill Township and built a new 6-mile line to connect the substation to an existing transmission line in the region.

In the Appenzell project, a new substation was built along Route 715 at Mountain Road in Jackson Township in Monroe to provide an additional source of electricity for local customers. A new 2-mile line was built to connect that substation to the same area transmission line tapped by the Effort Mountain project.

“These projects were needed in this area, and they’re part of our ongoing commitment to invest in the system that delivers power to our customers. They will provide increased reliability and reduce the duration and extent of outages, should they occur,” said Paul Canevari, regional community relations director for PPL.

The projects were designed and built in consultation with the public. PPL Electric Utilities held numerous open houses for each project to solicit community input on the line routes that were eventually selected. In addition, the projects were reviewed and approved by the Public Utility Commission.

In the Effort project, working with community stakeholders enabled a line adjustment and an expansion of a local nature preserve.

Under a 2010 pact with the Pocono Heritage Land Trust, PPL Electric Utilities agreed to purchase a 123-acre tract subsequently acquired by the land trust. The land is adjacent to the trust’s Jonas Mountain Nature Preserve and allowed the preserve to expand by more than 40 percent. The land trust agreed to allow the power line to cross its land, a move that allowed the line to be placed farther from the Birch Hollow Estates development.

Key to the deal was a $435,000 open space grant from Monroe County to the land trust.

PPL Electric Utilities plans to invest $3.4 billion from 2011-15 to strengthen, renew and modernize the electric delivery system across its 29-county service territory in central and eastern Pennsylvania.

For more information on major improvement projects and other efforts to keep electric service safe and reliable, visit www.pplreliablepower.com.

PPL Electric Utilities, a subsidiary of PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL), provides electric delivery services to about 1.4 million customers in Pennsylvania and has consistently ranked among the best companies for customer service in the United States. More information is available at www.pplelectric.com.