PPL Electric Utilities nearing completion of power restoration in
eastern Pennsylvania in aftermath of Sandy
ALLENTOWN, Pa., Nov. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- PPL Electric
Utilities will have restored 99 percent of its customers left
without power by Hurricane Sandy by late Sunday night (11/4). The
extent of the destruction will require some repairs involving a few
thousand customers to extend into Monday (11/5).
"We have the largest force ever assembled by PPL Electric
Utilities undoing the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, and they
have brought power back for well over 400,000 of our customers,"
said Dave Bonenberger, vice
president of Distribution Operations for PPL Electric Utilities.
"With the extensive damage from this storm and the time it's taking
to complete many complex jobs, unfortunately a few thousand
customers will be without power into Monday."
The utility was contacting customers not expected to have
service restored by tonight. It expects to complete restoration
work Monday in communities where power outages remain and continues
to move workers into those communities as crews complete work
elsewhere.
Outages are expected to continue into Monday in some areas of
Lehigh, Northampton, Bucks, Montgomery and Wayne counties in eastern Pennsylvania.
"As we near the end of the recovery effort, the jobs that remain
are restoring power to ever-smaller numbers of customers, but our
workforce of more than 5,000 people, including 3,000 field workers,
has maintained the same level of urgency throughout this difficult
process," Bonenberger said.
PPL Electric Utilities has added 700 line workers in eastern
Pennsylvania since Friday after
those workers finished working in other areas of the PPL Electric
Utilities service territory.
Utility workers from at least 10 different states, including PPL
Electric Utilities' sister utilities in Kentucky, are supporting storm damage
restoration.The size of the field workforce is more than triple the
size of PPL Electric Utilities' field workforce in normal
conditions.
Power is expected on by Sunday night at all public schools and
voting locations in the PPL Electric Utilities service area.
PPL Electric Utilities' automated system that provides customer
messages on estimated restoration times was turned off after
technical problems on Saturday resulted in customers receiving
inaccurate messages.
Customers can call 1-800-DIAL-PPL (1-800-342-5775) or check
pplelectric.com for restoration updates. The utility's outage web
site is adapted for mobile phones at www.pplelectric.com.
Customers are reminded to avoid power lines on or near the
ground, and safely use portable generators with proper
ventilation.
PPL Electric Utilities, a subsidiary of PPL Corporation (NYSE:
PPL), provides electric delivery services to about 1.4 million
customers in Pennsylvania and
consistently ranks among the best companies for customer service in
the United States. More
information is available at www.pplelectric.com.
SOURCE PPL Electric Utilities