News Releases

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (March 4, 2018) — PPL Electric Utilities, bolstered by assistance from hundreds of additional line workers and tree crews, is making significant progress in bringing the lights back on for customers affected by Winter Storm Riley.

As of 8 a.m. Sunday (3/4), about 137,000 customers had power restored and about 54,000 remained out of service.

The eastern part of PPL’s service area was the hardest hit and contains the bulk of the remaining outages. Counties with the most remaining outages include Lehigh, Northampton, Bucks, Monroe, Pike and Wayne.

“We’re working around the clock and are making good progress,” said Stephanie Raymond, vice president, Distribution Operations. “We know it’s not easy being without power. Our customers should know we are bringing in all available resources to restore their service.”

PPL is recalling about 25 linemen now doing storm restoration work in Puerto Rico so they can help restore customers to power in Pennsylvania.

Also assisting PPL are 100 contractors provided through PPL’s sister utilities in Kentucky – Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities. In addition, we expect another 250 line workers to arrive today and tomorrow from utilities as far away as Florida, Texas, Ohio and Alabama.

This storm will rank among the 10 worst to affect PPL customers.

The following estimated restoration times for various regions of our service territory. It is important to note that most customers in these areas will have power restored well in advance of the stated times. Customers will receive updated restoration alerts when crews arrive to begin repairs that will restore their service.

• Lehigh Valley, Poconos, Northeast Pennsylvania (including Scranton area), and Bucks and Montgomery counties – 11 p.m. Wednesday, March 7. 
• Susquehanna Valley (Lock Haven/Bloomsburg) and Lancaster County – 11 p.m. Sunday, March 4.
• Harrisburg Area – 5 p.m. Sunday, March 4.
• Hazleton/Wilkes-Barre region and Schuylkill County – 11 p.m. Monday, March 5.

Restoration progress can be followed though our outage center at pplelectric.com/outage.

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.