Local utilities respond to PUC electric reliability report

READING, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) says last year was a bad year in terms of power outages in the state. Power companies had more outages than they saw in other recent years.

“Things seem to be changing and we need to adapt to help our customers and keep their lights on,” said Todd Meyers, a spokesperson for Met-Ed.

Met-Ed and PPL are among the Pennsylvania electric distributors who dealt with increased power outages in 2024.

According to the PUC’s latest Electric Service Reliability Report, statewide, there were 71 reportable outages that left more than 2.8 million customers without power at some point during the year. Officials say that’s up from 49 reportable outages statewide the year before.

“So much of this is really driven by increasingly stormier weather,” Meyers explained.

“What PPL Electric Utilities experienced in 2024 did set records for us in terms of both the number of cases that we had, weather related outage events, and also the severity,” said Damon Turbitt, PPL Electric Utilities media relations specialist.

Met-Ed is working on a long-term infrastructure improvement plan. It includes things like putting lines underground in some areas, trimming problem trees that are out of the right of way, and upgrading and replacing equipment to make it sturdier.

“We’re also looking at doing a lot more automation where if a tree comes down or a car hits a pole, something impacts our system, there’s switches up there that can very quickly re-route the power to a nearby power line,” said Meyers.

PPL is focusing on similar improvements and planning to invest in its infrastructure.

“We’re looking to continue to invest in our grid and improve reliability for our customers, because that’s what’s most important,” said Turbitt.