PPL: Flashing lights not always arching transformer

VALLEY TWP. — People seeing flashing lights along PPL lines may mistakenly believe the wires are sparking.

Valley Township Fire Chief Mike Kull said he has received a few calls this year from residents who believed a transformer was arching on a pole.

"It has turned out to be the flashing yellow and red LED lights on poles," he said.

Teri MacBride, of PPL Electric Utilities, said these fault indicators on power lines are part of the utility company's effort to avoid power outages, provide more reliable service and restore outages more quickly.

"If these devices sense problems on the line, their lights will start blinking. They provide information to us about the location of the problem and serve as a guide for responding repair crews. Some customers mistake the flashing indicator for sparking wires or a wire fire and call their local 911 center," said MacBride, the regional affairs director.

The monitoring devices have been installed on many of their power lines.

"While we want folks to call the local 911 center in a true emergency, when it comes to a flashing fault indicator, it probably is not necessary. It is helpful people understand what they look like and be aware of these devices," she said.

People need not contact PPL when they see them blinking since the utility's system is tied in with ways to communicate with the devices, she said.

MacBride said PPL has been using the fault indicators for years.

She said they could be installed at locations where people aren't familiar with them.

"They do move from location to location. They may disappear because we are no longer needing them to get that specific information at that location. They are designed to be portable and do get moved," she said.

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