PPL Electric Utilities, a subsidiary of PPL Corporation and provider of electric delivery service to 1.4 million customers in 29 counties of eastern and central Pennsylvania, has announced that it was awarded a Federal grant to deploy smart grid technology that would benefit 60,000 Harrisburg area customers.

Back in August, TMCnet reported that PPL Electric Utilities has announced its proposed project to the U.S. Department of Energy,

For this project, PPL Electric Utilities will receive a $19 million piece of the more than $3.4 billion in stimulus funding made available by the federal government to update the nation's power grid.

Only one in four companies competing for grant applications was successful.

 

“We think the strength of our team and scope of our project, which expands on our company's previously installed advanced metering technology, stood out and were key factors in our success, and we are honored to have been selected,” said G. DeCampli, president of PPL Electric Utilities.

By deploying smart grid technology, PPL Electric Utilities will be able to strengthen reliability, save energy and improve electric service for their customers.

The new technology would allow the company to operate its power lines at optimal voltages, meaning customer appliances would use less electricity to do their jobs. This could save Harrisburg area customers about $1.5 million a year on their electricity bills, according to DeCampli.

The project will also help the company to react instantaneously to changes on the delivery system and automatically reroute power around problems that occur.

 

As part of the project, PPL Electric Utilities will install hundreds of new electrical devices focusing on 150 square miles of the company's delivery system and deploy a centralized computer system linked to these devices that would track and respond to changes on the delivery system as they happen.

 

The total cost of the project is $38 million, half of which will be funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the remaining half will be self-funded by the company.