PPL Electric Utilities' Smart Grid Pilot Project Moves Into Action

ALLENTOWN, Pa., July 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --  PPL Electric Utilities' " smart grid" pilot project, which uses 21st-century technology to strengthen the electric delivery system and make it more reliable and responsive, is fully installed and beginning to return benefits for about 60,000 customers in Dauphin and Cumberland counties around Harrisburg. The three-year, $40 million project was supported with a federal stimulus grant.

The capabilities of the smart grid, which will be further enhanced over time, include:

• Strengthening reliability by quickly detecting problems that cause outages and rerouting power around the problem area to restore power.
• Saving customers energy and money by improving operating efficiency. Our upgrades will let us operate at slightly lower voltages, reducing power consumption. Many appliances will use less electricity to perform the same jobs.
• Helping reduce carbon dioxide emissions by saving energy.
• Providing a foundation for better integrating future wind and solar power.
• Improving our understanding of the system and the demands placed on it.

"This is the biggest technological improvement to the power delivery grid in decades," said Steve Gelatko, manager of Distribution Asset Management and smart grid project manager for the company. "The smart grid is poised to produce real benefits to customers in the Harrisburg area and ultimately across our 29-county service area."

What it is and how it works

In the event of a local interruption – like a tree falling on a power line – the smart grid sensors can detect the fault and automatically send energy to another circuit serving the area. Customers could be back online within minutes. By comparison, it might take a field crew an hour or more to patrol the line, identify the problem and reroute power to another circuit before fixing the line.

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