Aug. 7, 2026
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
PPL Corp. reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of $247 million, or 33 cents per share, today and said its sees increasing interest from data-center companies and other big electricity users in Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
That could lead to $10 billion to $12 billion in investment through 2032 to meet power-generation needs through 2032, PPL said in its earnings release.
The Allentown-based utility was expected to report “ongoing” (adjusted) earnings per share of 35 cents, according to Zacks Investment Research.
Chief Executive Vincent Sorgi will hold a conference call to discuss the company’s results at 11 a.m. Wall Street analysts will be looking for news on data centers, the big consumers of energy that some Lehigh Valley residents oppose.
PPL raised its “default rate” for electricity for Lehigh Valley customers along with its delivery charge this year. The higher delivery price will cost an average residential customer about $78 annually. That charge last went up in 2016. The electricity rate is for customers who do not shop for better prices via the Public Utility Commission’s PA Power Switch market.
In July, PPL signed a “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” that focuses on making sure regular customers are protected from price surges related to data centers.
“Ultimately, we believe economic growth and customer protection can go hand in hand, and this pledge reflects that important balance,” Sorgi said in a press release about the pledge.
The closing price Thursday of shares in the company (NYSE:PPL) was $34.62 giving the company a market capitalization of $26.1 billion. The shares have traded as low as $33.17 and as high as $40.11 in the last 52 weeks.
Disclosure: I own shares in PPL. I also shop via PA Power Switch and am paying 17% less per kilowatt hour than the PPL default rate.
PPL serves more than 3.6 million electricity and natural gas customers in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Kentucky.
