Pennsylvania’s power grid faces reliability issues, report finds

Pennsylvania’s power grid faces reliability issues, report finds

The Pennsylvania Power grid faced a challenging year in 2024, with a record number of power outages, according to a report from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.

The commission’s Electric Service Reliability Report found that the state experienced 71 “reportable outage events,” the most in more than 30 years. These events affected over 2.8 million Pennsylvanians.

The report highlights that most of the state’s 11 electric distribution companies struggled to meet reliability standards.

Penn Power, a FirstEnergy company whose coverage area includes Mercer and Lawrence Counties, came up with mixed results on the PUC’s reliability scorecard.

While surpassing the PUC’s standard for the average frequency and duration of outages per customer in 2024, the utilities scored poorly when it came to average power restoration time for customers, averaging 144 minutes compared to the 121-minute standard.

According to the report, severe storms and vegetation remain the primary causes of power disruptions. The PUC’s Bureau of Technical Utility Services is urging EDCs to improve their vegetation management and capital improvement programs.

The report notes that while advanced technologies are helping to reduce the number of customers affected by outages, these technologies can sometimes lengthen the time it takes to restore power in the most severely damaged areas.