- PPL Electric Utilities could get up to $49.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy
- The money will go to improve grid flexibility
- Improvements are necessary to protect against threats of extreme weather and climate change.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — PPL Electric Utilities is working with the U.S. Department of Energy on funding for a plan to strengthen the power grid throughout the region.
The grant has the potential to provide PPL with up to $49.5 million. The company and DOE will work on the terms of its plan to secure the federal grant, according to a written announcement from PPL on Thursday.
PPL's "Grid of the Future" application was accepted into DOE's Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships, or GRIP, program, which carries a total of $99 million of investments provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The money is earmarked to develop and integrate hardware and software that will allow grid flexibility to the transmission and distribution arms of utilities.
The end result should be increased reliability and the advancement of affordable clean energy, PPL officials said.
“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 Utilities President 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 Utilities President Christine Martin said in the release.
PPL Electric’s Grid of the Future project recommended by the DOE would:
- Prevent and shorten power outages
- Improve system reliability and reduce maintenance costs
- Provide real-time visibility into the grid to identify outages, changes in customer demand and fluctuations in distributed energy resources and
- Enable increased connections of distributed energy resources and electric vehicle adoption
The GRIP program seeks to enhance grid flexibility and improve the resilience of the power system against growing threats of extreme weather and climate change.
PPL Electric Utilities delivers electricity to 1.5 million homes and businesses in eastern and central Pennsylvania.
