BETHLEHEM, Pa. — PPL Electric Utilities is falling short of industry standards for its customer service and timeliness for restoring power outages, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission found in an audit released Thursday.
The wide-ranging audit made 19 recommendations for PPL to improve its operations.
While many are behind-the-scene measures such as changing internal policies on dividends, how it tracks purchases and how frequently it polls employee morale, others are far more consequential to PPL customers.
In 2023, the average PPL customer waited three hours and eight minutes before power was restored, according to the audit.Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission audit
Improving wait times for customers who have lost power was one of the more urgent priorities the PUC identified.
In 2023, the average PPL customer waited three hours and eight minutes before power was restored, according to the audit. That's about 40 minutes longer than the benchmark established by the PUC and more than 20 minutes longer than the state's 12-month average, the PUC found.
And 2023 wasn't out of the ordinary for PPL, though it was its worse showing in recent years. In the past five years, PPL missed the benchmark four times and was worse than the 12-month average three times, the audit found.
'Reevaluate its reliability'
In many instances, it's the same customers bearing the brunt of the poor service, the data suggested.
PPL tracks how frequently its 1.5 million customers in 29 Pennsylvania counties lose power. About 4% of them lost power four or more times in a year, while up to 0.2% of them lost power 10 or more times, the audit found.
While those may seem like low percentages and do not violate any state standard, the PUC said those were unacceptable rates.
"At some point, [frequent power disruptions] could, at a minimum, lead to customer dissatisfaction or regulatory action or enforcement. Therefore, PPL Electric should reevaluate its reliability program to drive improvement."Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission audit
No customer should be losing power 10 or more times in a year, and PPL should have set standards stating as much, it found.
"At some point, [frequent power disruptions] could, at a minimum, lead to customer dissatisfaction or regulatory action or enforcement," the audit reported.
"Therefore, PPL Electric should reevaluate its reliability program to drive improvement."
The PUC also flagged PPL's customer service record as an area in need of improvement.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the utility company's internal records showed high-levels of customer satisfaction. However, customer satisfaction cratered between July 2020 and January 2023, the audit found.
The audit recognized the pandemic presented a serious challenge to PPL and companies. Retaining and hiring employees became a problem, and the financial difficulties the pandemic created meant more people were calling for support.
As wait times climbed in January 2021, 17% of customers calling the help line abandoned their calls — more than three-times above the industry benchmark, the PUC said.
'Delivering better service'
But other factors contributed to PPL's poor record, the audit found.
A technical error led to massive billing problems between January 2023 and July 2023, causing some customers to be severely overbilled while others didn't get a bill at all.
Subpar performance peaked at nearly 42% in January 2023, the audit found.
Customers weren't the only ones displeased with the billing fiasco. PPL agreed to pay the PUC $1 million to settle complaints resulting from the billing problem.
"We welcome the ability to explore economically beneficial opportunities for PPL Electric to further improve its management and operations while delivering better service to its customers."PPL response to Public Utilities Commission audit findings
The investigation into the error limited portions of the audit, including its customer service performance, the PUC reported.
Other problems highlighted in the audit included the company's backlog of IT projects and the minor security and safety shortcomings at some of its facilities.
PPL fully agreed with 16 of the recommendations, including the need to improve its record of restoring power and customer service. It partially agreed to three others.
"We welcome the ability to explore economically beneficial opportunities for PPL Electric to further improve its management and operations while delivering better service to its customers," the $4.3 billion corporation wrote in its response to the audit.
