PPL Electric looks to receive $49.5M grant for infrastructure project

PPL Electric looks to receive $49.5M grant for infrastructure project 
https://www.cpbj.com/ppl-electric-looks-to-receive-49-5m-grant-for-infrastructure-project/

Cris Collingwood // October 19, 2023 

PPL Electric Utilities could receive $49.5 million in federal funding for its $99 million Grid of the Future infrastructure project. 

The Allentown-based utility said today that its project application was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to potentially receive the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funds. It was selected through the nationally competitive Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program.  

The Grid of the Future project includes a combination of hardware and software components that work together to deliver grid flexibility to the transmission and distribution systems and provide customer benefits, including increased reliability and resiliency while advancing an affordable clean energy transition, PPL Electric said. 

Over the next several months, PPL Electric said it will work with the DOE Grid Deployment Office on the terms of its plan to secure the pending grant. 

“The Grid of the Future project builds on over a decade of success in self-healing smart grid innovation,” said President of PPL Electric Utilities Christine Martin. “This funding will allow us to accommodate a rapidly evolving electric grid balancing strong resiliency, low customer costs, and high reliability, all while embracing two-way power flow from distributed energy resources.”   

PPL Electric’s Grid of the Future project recommended by the DOE will:  

• Prevent and shorten power outages through the addition of intelligent grid devices, sensors and automation on single-phase and underground networks. 
• Improve system reliability and reduce maintenance costs through predictive failure monitoring technology. 
• Provide real-time visibility into the grid to identify outages, changes in customer demand and fluctuations in distributed energy resources to automatically reroute power and safely balance the flow of power on the grid.
• Enable increased connections of distributed energy resources and electric vehicle adoption on the grid through IT enhancements using artificial intelligence and machine learning.  

“Across PPL, we’re focused on creating utilities of the future that are agile, innovative and technology-enabled to drive additional value for customers and shareowners and support a reliable, affordable clean energy transition,” said PPL President and Chief Executive Officer Vincent Sorgi. “As we execute our vision, we’re pleased to take advantage of this unique funding opportunity to create savings for our customers and strengthen grid resiliency.”