PPL Electric Utilities has responded to a request for help from one of the country's largest electric utilities, which is preparing for Hurricane Ivan later this week.

On Wednesday (9/15) about 105 PPL Electric employees will leave for the service area of the Southern Company. The PPL contingent, which includes linemen, supervisors, engineers and support personnel, will travel to Chattanooga, Tenn. Once the hurricane passes, Southern Company will determine where the crews are most needed, which can be anywhere from Georgia to Mississippi.

"Our first priority, as always, is to provide reliable service to PPL's 1.3 million customers in Pennsylvania," said John F. Sipics, president of PPL Electric Utilities. "We made the decision to help Southern Company after careful consideration of our customers' needs and the expected severity of Hurricane Ivan to the people of the Southeast. We view this as a major emergency. We are retaining enough workers at home to respond to our customers' basic needs for reliable service."

Last week, PPL Electric responded to requests from Florida utilities to help recover after Hurricane Frances. PPL Electric made available to those companies about 100 contractor linemen and the contracted helicopter that the company uses for power line maintenance work. The linemen and helicopter are still in Florida helping with recovery efforts.

"We determined in both of these cases that the needs were great enough for us to send our resources to help," said Sipics. "Utilities traditionally look to other companies to help with major storms. Several utilities responded to our request for help with recovery from Hurricane Isabel last September, when we received assistance from as far away as New England, Canada and Iowa. We are pleased to do our part to help people return from the devastation that such hurricanes can bring."

The service crews going to Southern Company come from across the PPL Electric Utilities service territory, including the Lehigh Valley, the Poconos, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Hazleton, Bloomsburg, Williamsport and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area.

Atlanta-based Southern Company serves 4.1 million customers in a 120,000-square-mile service area that includes parts of Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. It is the parent firm of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric.

PPL Electric Utilities Corporation is a subsidiary of PPL Corporation. Headquartered in Allentown, Pa., PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) controls more than 12,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to nearly 5 million customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America. More information is available at www.pplweb.com.