Questions and Answers on PPL’s New Work Management Process

PPL is changing how our work groups plan for, and schedule, customer-initiated jobs. This includes any/all work a customer requests from us that requires PPL engineering or design work; right of way acquisition; or skilled PPL line worker or electrical crews. The new process allows our PPL teams to be more efficient and work more safely, meaning fewer delays for our customers.

• Installation of electric service for new residential and commercial customers
  • Examples include: a new house, apartments, or a business being built
• Interruptions for residential and commercial customers
  • Examples include: a customer needs power shut off temporarily for a contractor to trim trees around a service wire (an electric wire that runs into your home or business), or because an electrician needs to replace their meter base.
• Line extensions for residential and commercial customers
  • Examples include: customers need to extend a power line – either underground or overhead – to a new home, a guest house, a shed, etc.
• Upgrades in service for residential and commercial customers
  • Examples include: a homeowner is building a large addition and needs their 100-amp service upgraded to 200 amps, or a business plans to expand and use more power.
• Relocations for residential and commercial customers
  • Examples include: a customer needs to move their sidewalk or expand a driveway, resulting in the need to move utility poles and/or PPL electric wires.
• Underground residential developments (URDs)
  • PPL needs to install underground service to a new/expanded residential development.
• Street lights and area lights

Please note, there will be no changes to: customers/landlords starting or stopping service at one address or moving their account to another home or apartment that already receives PPL service. These services do not require engineering, right of way, or a PPL crew, so they can happen more quickly.

These changes are starting now. Our employees contacted many large builders and contractors throughout our service territory in fall 2018.

If you are in the middle of a project that requires any of the PPL work above, please contact us as soon as possible. We’ll do our best to accommodate everyone as new customers learn about the changes throughout the next several weeks.

Please contact us as early as you can within your processes/timeline, so we can prepare and do the work needed to ensure your job is a success. After you contact us at 1-800-DIAL-PPL or via our contractor website portal:

• An engineering representative will contact you within 5-business days from the time PPL is contacted to understand the complexity of the job.
  • In most instances, PPL will create a work order for you upon this first contact.
  • PPL will work on right-of-way acquisition, engineering, ordering of materials, and additional work that needs to be completed to start on-site construction.
• Construction will start a minimum of 9 weeks from the time PPL is contacted.
  • In some cases, it could be longer than 9 weeks. The timeline depends on complexity of the job, such as the need to obtain additional right of way.
• The exception to the above-mentioned customer work will be temporary disconnects for residential customers, such as when a customer needs service shut off for a day to trim trees. The scheduled start date for these jobs will be a minimum of 6 weeks from the date of notification.

Customers should provide PPL as much notice as possible of their needs, with 9 weeks being the minimum.

To be placed on the schedule, the following applicable customer requirement must be completed 6 weeks prior to the start of construction:

• Customer payment
• Ratepayer confirmation
• Signed right-of-way agreement
• Customer contract agreement
• Customer tree work – if the customer needs to remove/trim trees before construction

Once the customer and PPL’s work management employee agree on a scheduled date, the job will be placed on PPL’s schedule. The customer then needs to ensure the following requirements are completed to meet their current agreed-upon scheduled date:

• The electrical inspection must be completed 2 weeks prior to the scheduled start of construction.
• The trench/conduit for underground secondary services installation must to be completed per PPL specifications 2 weeks prior to the scheduled start of construction.
• The trench for underground primary installation must to be completed per PPL specifications 1 week prior to the scheduled start of construction.

A PPL employee will contact the customer for an update on any outstanding requirements. If the customer cannot complete their requirements per the above timeframe, PPL will need to reschedule the job as follows:

• If the primary trench is not ready 1 week prior to the scheduled construction start, the construction start date will be delayed a minimum of 5 weeks.
• If the underground secondary/service trench or inspection is not ready 2 weeks prior to the scheduled construction start, the construction start date will be delayed a minimum of 5 weeks.

Similarly, If PPL crews arrive on-site for the job and find the trench has not been dug according to PPL specifications, the construction start date will be delayed a minimum of 5 weeks.

We know that delays are always difficult, no matter why they occur. But if customer requirements are not met we need to reschedule you according to the timeline above to be fair to all other customers who already have jobs scheduled through the next 4 or 5 weeks.

Strong storms and major power outages beyond PPL’s control have a large effect on our manpower and schedule. Therefore, severe storms will always cause some delays in scheduled work for PPL and our customers. We thank you for your continued understanding and support during and after major or widespread power outages.

If PPL cannot do work on the scheduled date due to the weather, we will re-schedule your job as soon as possible, likely for the next week. In other words, customers will not need to wait the full 5 weeks if a job is missed due to legitimate emergencies outside of PPL or the customer’s control and/or weather.

We’re committed to making this change work as smoothly as possible for our customers and their construction crews. And, our employees are working hard to ensure that the transition to this new process is a success.

If you have any further questions or concerns after reading this document, please contact us at 1-800-DIAL-PPL. Your questions will be routed to the appropriate employees in each region if needed.

If you need to schedule a job with PPL:

• Residential and small business customers should call 1-800-DIAL-PPL.
• Mid-sized and large business customers (rate schedules GH2, GS3, LP4, LP5, SHS, SE, SM) and municipalities, please contact our Business Accounts Specialists at 1-888-220-9991, option 4 or email BusinessAccounts@pplweb.com.
• Contractors can also visit our contractor portal.