Jim Conley, PP&L, Inc.'s on-site coordinator for 62 linemen and support personnel, working since Dec. 25 to restore power lost due to an ice storm in Virginia, will update the situation there in a telephone conference call open to the news media at 9 a.m., Wednesday, Dec. 30.

To hear Conley's update and to participate in the question-and-answer session following the update, please call 1-800-283-1485 a few minutes prior to 9 a.m. to ensure your connection.

PP&L, Inc., crews are expected to remain on the scene in Virginia at least through Friday, Jan. 1, 1999. At the height of the storm damage, more than 285,000 Virginia Power Co. customers, primarily in the Petersburg, Richmond, and Williamsburg, Va., areas and eastern Virginia, were without electricity. In all, more than 360,000 customers were affected by the storm.

PP&L, Inc., a subsidiary of PP&L Resources, Inc., generates electricity, provides electric delivery services to 1.2 million customers in eastern and central Pennsylvania, and trades or markets wholesale energy in the United States and Canada.

Work crews of more than 60 PP&L., Inc. linemen and support personnel, all volunteers, have labored since Christmas day to restore electricity to customers within a 50-mile radius of Richmond, VA. At the height of an ice storm on 12-23-98, more than 285,000 Virginia Power Co. customers were without electricity. By 12-30-98, a week later, the number of customers without electricity had been reduced to approximately 23,000 -- most of them in isolated rural areas, such as those depicted in these photos. The PP&L, Inc. volunteers are expected to remain in Virginia at least through Friday, 1-1-99.