PPL open house outlines pole line upgrades, new switchyard at Highridge Industrial Park
Utility mum on ‘new customer’ though switchyard is on property owned by data center developer
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - Nick Sweigart, a transmission right-of-way specialist with PPL Electric Utilities, outlines part of the Sunbury-Frackville reconstruction project with Ryan Twardzik, left, of Frackville, at an open house on Dec. 16, 2025 at the Schuylkill Technology Center - North Campus in Frackville.
FRACKVILLE – A project to rebuild 37 miles of pole line between Shamokin Dam and Frackville was on display Tuesday at the Schuylkill Technology Center North Campus in Frackville.
Employees of PPL Electric Utilities were on hand as poster boards wrapped around a common area at the school for residents to view.
Those boards offered information regarding the project and showed its route from the area of the Hummel Combined Cycle Power Plant in Shamokin Dam, southeast to the Mahantongo Valley and east, past Pitman, to the substation at Frackville.
Many of those in attendance Tuesday were Mahantongo Valley farmers.
The project, the Allentown-based utility said, would rebuild an existing 230 kV line “to support anticipated load growth, including a large load customer,” according to a fact sheet distributed at the open house.
“Essentially, we as a company continue to invest in our transmission system because of the unprecedented load growth that we’re having,” Kelly Palmer, a regional affairs director for PPL, told the Sentinel. “We need to make sure that our transmission system is robust enough and we’re investing in it so we can serve new customers and also our existing customers.”
She emphasized that the investments benefit the local community and all PPL customers “because it’s an overall system improvement.”
“It improves reliability for the customers, it improves resiliency on the grid, and it also increases the capacity that we have on the grid itself,” Palmer said.
The project involves widening the right-of-way for the line to up to 325 feet — an expansion of 225 feet in some areas — to allow for the new steel monopole structures to be built adjacent to the existing steel lattice towers. The height of the new poles has yet to be determined.
Once the new line is built, the old line will be decommissioned and removed, though Palmer says the company will retain the right-of-way for potential future expansion.
A new switchyard will be built in Butler Township as part of the project. It will be built north of the Interstate 81 interchange at Highridge Park Road.
In an FAQ sheet distributed at the open house, PPL declined to identify the new customer “due to customer confidentiality.”
Under a question header reading “Is this project needed to support a data center specific customer,” the utility wrote around an answer, reiterating that the “project will enable us to meet the existing and growing demand for power in the surrounding area.”
“It will also allow a new customer in the area to connect to the electric grid,” the answer continues.
The proposed switchyard, as shown on PPL’s map, is located within property owned by Northpoint Development in the Highridge Industrial Park, specifically NP Highridge Park, LLC.
The Kansas City-based company responsible for several warehouse developments in east-central Pennsylvania purchased the land in March from SEDCO for $6 Million.
They are also behind Project Hazelnut, an embattled data center campus proposal wedged between Eagle Rock Resort, Interstate 81, the Humboldt Industrial Park, and Tomhicken Road near Hazleton. Hazle Township voted 3-0 in November to deny that project.
PPL’s FAQ also notes that eminent domain is possible if the utility does not reach an agreement with a property owner.
The route as presented Tuesday will likely change in some areas, labeled as “further evaluation required” on PPL’s maps.
In many of these instances, the proposal places the pole line directly over an occupied structure, including a home off School Road in Leck Kill, Upper Mahanoy Township, Northumberland County, and on Taylorsville Mountain Road in Eldred Township, Schuylkill County.
The line also directly runs through the Federal Correctional Institution – Schuylkill campus, where expansion will also present an issue.
Tuesday’s open house — and another Wednesday in the Selinsgrove area — were intended to open a dialogue with the public, Palmer told the Sentinel. She said the company wants to hear feedback and work with the public through the project.
Additional open houses are planned later in 2026. The utility hopes to begin construction by Q2 of 2027 and construction will take until the end of 2028. Final restoration will be done by the end of Q2 in 2029.
PPL also created a webpage for the project and they are accepting questions and comments from customers and stakeholders at [email protected].
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