Following termination of commercial and residential customers for non-payment, PP&L's policy now is that it will reconnect the electric service sometime on the next working day after payment is received.

"It's explicitly stated under Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission regulations that service shall be reconnected by the end of the following work day," said Bob Ballard, manager-Revenue Collection.

"In the past, we have made extraordinary efforts to try and connect customers as soon as possible, but on reviewing our procedures we determined this is not fair to the vast number of our customers to do so.

"This change also causes less disruption to the schedules of our service personnel and improves efficiency," said Ballard.

Terminating service to customers for non-payment is the last resort. PP&L customers who are behind on their bill payments receive a 10-day written notice, followed by a three-day personal notification from PP&L, either by phone call or delivered by a serviceman. If the customer does not pay the overdue amount or call to make a payment arrangement, PP&L can terminate service.