How the Electric Grid Works

We’re focused on providing our customers with safe, reliable and affordable electricity. While flipping a switch may seem simple, there’s a very complex system that gets power from where it’s generated to homes and businesses in eastern and central Pennsylvania. This system is commonly known as the electric grid.

How electricity gets to your home or business

Electricity is generated at traditional power plants or through renewable sources like solar panels, wind turbines or hydroelectric dams.
Electricity has its voltage increased and is then transported over high-voltage power lines. These lines are known as transmission lines and are like highways — they efficiently carry large amounts of electricity over long distances, just as highways move large volumes of vehicles between cities.
When electricity arrives in the region it’s intended for, voltage is reduced, or “transformed,” at a substation. Think of these as the exit ramps from the highway.
Electricity then travels over lower-voltage power lines. These are known as distribution lines and act like local roads — delivering electricity directly to homes and businesses in the same way that smaller streets connect neighborhoods to main roads.
Overhead transformers, which are mounted on poles, further reduce the voltage of electricity to make it ready for use at homes and businesses.
Electricity arrives at your home or business and can be used to power your life.

Key components of the electric grid

Power plants and renewable generation sources

Traditional power plants, like natural gas or nuclear, and renewable energy sources generate electricity for consumers to use at their home or business. In Pennsylvania, these operate independently of local utilities and sell power into a competitive market. PPL Electric delivers electricity to customers, but doesn’t own the power plants where that electricity is generated. In Pennsylvania, customers can shop for an electricity supplier that fits their needs, such as the lowest-cost provider or renewable energy.

Transmission lines

Electricity is often generated in remote locations. High-voltage transmission lines allow electricity to travel over long distances from where it’s generated to places like cities and towns where it’s needed the most. PPL Electric operates and maintains more than 5,000 miles of transmission lines that carry electricity between 69 and 500 kilovolts (kVs). Transmission is the backbone of the electric grid and is vital to national security, reliability, affordability, economic development and a cleaner energy future.

Substations

Fed by the transmission lines, substations control and regulate power for distribution in localized cities and towns. These facilities serve as hubs for local power and generally house components like circuit breakers, protective devices and transformers that are required to safely control and transform the flow and level of high-voltage power.

Distribution lines

When customers think about electricity, they most likely visualize the distribution lines that carry electricity at lower voltages through their neighborhoods to homes and businesses. PPL Electric maintains more than 36,000 miles of overhead distribution lines, and another nearly 9,000 miles of underground distribution lines, that help deliver electricity to customers safely and reliably.

Transformers

These critical electrical components are designed to reduce, or “transform,” higher voltage electricity to the lower voltage levels needed for homes and businesses. Typically mounted on utility poles, transformers play a crucial role in the overall electric grid, allowing for more efficient distribution of electricity and ensuring safe and reliable delivery to customers.