Project is part of ongoing upgrades to improve reliability to customers

PPL Electric Utilities will start work soon on a major regional power line upgrade along the Susquehanna River corridor between Lock Haven and Williamsport, the company said Tuesday (4/17).

“This $15 million project to upgrade a 22-mile stretch of high-voltage power line will boost reliability for customers and will accommodate industrial expansion at the former paper mill site in Lock Haven,” said Frank Gaida, PPL’s regional operations manager.

He said the upgrade will provide ample electricity for proposed industrial development that could create hundreds of jobs for the region.

High-voltage transmission lines are the superhighways of the electric delivery system. They move huge amounts of electricity from power plants to substations. Substations transform the power to lower voltages, and then lower-voltage lines act like rural roads and city streets to transport power to neighborhoods and businesses.

“We’re improving our electricity delivery system all around the company’s 29-county service territory as demand grows,” Gaida said.

PPL plans to invest $1.4 billion in the next five years to improve reliability for customers and to power economic expansion in the region.

The project between Lock Haven and Williamsport involves adding wires to existing poles on the 69,000-volt line.

The route extends from South Williamsport to Lock Haven along the south side of the river corridor. It passes through Castanea Township and Wayne Township in Clinton County and goes on through Nippenose Township, Armstrong Township and Duboistown Borough in Lycoming County, ending at PPL’s Lycoming substation on the mountain in South Williamsport.

Most of the route is very rural and runs along a former railroad bed.

It has been nearly 30 years since the original power line was installed. PPL employees will be contacting residents and property owners along the route to discuss the project, Gaida said.

Some tree clearing and trimming will be needed. This work, essential to the reliability and safety of the power line, will be the first major evidence of construction. It will begin soon, starting from the Castanea Township end of the route, Gaida said.

The project will extend through most of the summer with an anticipated completion in late August.

PPL Electric Utilities Corporation, a subsidiary of PPL Corporation that provides electricity delivery services to about 1.4 million customers in Pennsylvania, has consistently ranked among the best companies for customer service in the United States. Headquartered in Allentown, Pa., PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) controls more than 11,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to more than 5 million customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America.