The U.S. Department of Energy said Thursday it will spend almost $2 billion to squeeze more electricity out of the nation’s aging power grid. Allentown-based PPL Electric Utilities is getting up to $71.5 million of it, the Associated Press reported.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced the funding at a PPL Corp. facility in Allentown. It’s part of a 31-project effort spanning 26 states, meant to expand grid capacity as electricity demand from artificial intelligence data centers surges.
The projects are expected to add more than 23 gigawatts of capacity nationwide, enough to power 16 million homes. Officials said they could also improve reliability and lower costs for roughly 100 million Americans.
What PPL Is Building
PPL will modernize about 30 miles of high-voltage transmission line serving the Susquehanna Valley, the Greater Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pennsylvania, according to Pennsylvania Capital-Star…