PPL Corporation's $1.9 Billion of Projects Cover Upgrades to Transmission, Coal Plants

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) (Allentown, Pennsylvania) reported lower earnings for first-quarter 2019 at its U.S.-based utilities, when compared with the same period last year, although company executives said these results will not affect this year's $3.3 billion in planned infrastructure investments. Industrial Info is tracking more than $1.9 billion in active projects involving PPL, more than half of which is attributed to transmission and distribution (T&D) projects.

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing PPL's active projects, by project type.

In its home state, PPL is at work on the $338 million Northern Lehigh Reliability Project, which involves rebuilding about 43 miles of power lines and upgrading several substations across Pennsylvania. This includes the $18 million rebuild of the Breinigsville-Alburtis section, which runs six miles from the proposed, $45 million substation in Breinigsville to the existing Alburtis Substation in Macungie. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on the line rebuild and substation.

Pennsylvania also is home to PPL's estimated $64.2 million rebuild of its Lackawanna-North Meshoppen transmission line, which is expected to wrap up in the first quarter of 2020. Major components include the $24 million rebuild of the Lackawanna-Oxbow segment, which runs 17 miles from Blakely to Nicholson. PPL also is performing a $7.3 million upgrade to the Lackawanna Substation in Blakely. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on the line rebuild and substation upgrade.

PPL also is at work on a trio of wastewater treatment systems in northern Kentucky for its subsidiary Louisville Gas & Electric (LG&E). Each project is being constructed at an existing coal-fired power plant to comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) effluent guidelines, which apply to wastewater discharged to surface waters and municipal sewage treatment plants. These include:

• $189 million system at the Mill Creek Power Station in Louisville; see project report
• $90 million system at the Ghent Power Station in Ghent; see project report
• $85 million system at the Trimble County Power Station in Bedford; see project report

Each treatment system will use flue-gas desulfurization technology to remove selenium, mercury and heavy metals. The Trimble County Power Station also is undergoing a $183 million ash pond closure, also in compliance with EPA rules. Coal ash, a byproduct of coal-fired power generation that also is called coal combustion residual (CCR), normally was stored on site in "ponds," until the EPA demanded an end to the practice nationwide. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Late last year, LG&E published testing results that found significant levels of groundwater pollution at the Trimble County, Mill Creek and Ghent plants, according to an affiliate of National Public Radio in Bowling Green, Kentucky. High levels also were found at the E.W. Brown power plant in Harrodsburg, which is undergoing a $220 million landfill addition and ash-pond closure. The new landfill will have 8.5 million cubic feet of storage. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

PPL reported first-quarter 2019 earnings of $466 million, compared with first-quarter 2018 reported earnings of $452 million; lower earnings at PPL's U.S. segments were offset by higher earnings in its U.K. regulated assets.

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