PPL Electric wins DOE SPARC funding for Montour grid resilience project

PPL Electric Utilities announced that the U.S. Department of Energy will contribute up to $71.5 million toward the company's Montour grid resilience and reconductoring project, company leaders said at an Allentown event.

"How can we continue providing safe, reliable, and affordable service to the more than 1.5 million customers who depend on us every day," said Christine Martin, president of PPL Electric Utilities, explaining the project's customer-focused goals. Martin said the project will modernize a key transmission corridor, nearly triple its capacity and improve the company's ability to monitor system performance.

Martin described the award as a public'private partnership: she said Department of Energy funding could provide up to $71.5 million, roughly half the total project cost, with PPL providing matching funds. The company plans to deploy advanced conductor technology and "distributed acoustic sensing" to analyze line temperature, wind and other conditions in real time, Martin said.

Congressman Ryan McKenzie, who spoke at the event, said the Montour project will upgrade "29 miles of transmission lines" in the corridor and stressed the need to protect affordability for families and small businesses as infrastructure expands.

The announcement underscores a long-running partnership between PPL and DOE: Martin said federal support has helped PPL develop smart-grid technologies that detect problems and restore service more quickly, and that the Montour work represents a next chapter of those efforts. No project start date or detailed budget breakdown beyond the stated DOE contribution was specified in the remarks.

What happens next: speakers said the project will proceed under the SPARC program's cofunding model; event remarks did not include a definitive construction timeline or permitting details.