PPL Upgrades Should Help Keep the Lights on in Emmaus

If you are one of the PPL Electric Utilities customers in the Borough of Emmaus and Upper Milford Township who lost your electricity for an extended period in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy or the infamous Halloween snowstorm of 2011, listen up.

There’s some good news coming from PPL.

PPL is about to undertake a $2.8 million project that will rebuild and “storm harden” the main power line connecting PPL’s regional electric transmission lines to the Emmaus substation located off Furnace Street, near S. 10th Street, according to a press release from PPL.

That line, which runs through a wooded area, serves nearly 7,000 homes and businesses in the Emmaus area. The rebuilt line will be taller and constructed on sturdier poles with stronger wires, according to the release, which means it should be less subject to damage from fallen trees during major storms.

The line will also have additional lightning protection and features to help with quicker power restoration, according to PPL.

It’s tough to specifically say who the customers are who will benefit from the multimillion dollar upgrade, since the existing 69-kilovolt line supplies power to the Emmaus substation and that power is in turn delivered to PPL customers through a variety of distribution lines coming up of the substation on the other end. 

“It’s primarily the Borough of Emmaus, and parts of Salisbury and Upper Milford townships,” explained PPL spokesman Paul Wirth during a telephone interview with Patch. “People need to keep in mind that a customer is a house or a business. 

“The outages that we are talking about in this news release are caused by this power line, and this project will help the customers that were experiencing the outages because of this line.

“When this line goes out, we know that it has been the main problem for the long power outages because of all the trees. All of the people who had those prolonged outages are going to be helped,” Wirth said.

Wirth stressed that this power line rebuild is one of the many steps PPL is taking to alleviate extended power outages in the Emmaus area and beyond.

“This is just one part of a much wider project to make repairs like this to try to address all of the outages that happen in storms,” Wirth explained. “Just taking the trees down will make a huge difference in the number of outages and the duration of outages.

“The installation of other equipment, switches and sensors, is one part of a much larger project. If you are not served by this in particular, you are probably going to be helped by a much larger project somewhere else,” Wirth said. 

The Emmaus project is already under way, Wirth said, with environmental studies currently being conducted. Power line construction should begin sometime in 2014.