ARCHBALD — PPL Electric Utilities will hold an open house next week on infrastructure projects connecting multiple proposed data center campuses with 12 miles of new power lines, three switchyards and a substation.
The electric utility scheduled an informational open house on its “Archbald Mountain Transmission Project” and “Callender Gap & Sturges Transmission Project” Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Throop Civic Center, 500 Sanderson St., Throop, according to a PPL website dedicated to the projects. The infrastructure is largely confined to Archbald with infrastructure proposed to be built across the mountains on the east and west sides of the borough, corresponding with at least four of the town’s six proposed data center campuses. New transmission lines also will go through parts of Blakely, Jessup, Jefferson Twp. and Olyphant, according to PPL.
PPL Electric Utilities’ plans for its Callender Gap & Sturges Transmission Project. (SCREENSHOT VIA pplarchbaldmountainproject.com)
PPL Electric Utilities’ plans for its Archbald Mountain Transmission Project. (SCREENSHOT VIA pplarchbaldmountainproject.com)
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PPL Electric Utilities’ plans for its Callender Gap & Sturges Transmission Project. (SCREENSHOT VIA pplarchbaldmountainproject.com)
On the west for the Callender Gap and Sturges project, PPL plans to build two switchyards and about 4 miles of new 230-kilovolt power lines extending from its substation in Blakely and following existing lines above Business Route 6 into Archbald’s Sturges and Eynon sections.
Power lines cross over Eynon Jermyn Road in Archbald Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Vehicles pass a clearing of trees along Business Route 6 in Archbald Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Power lines cross over Eynon Jermyn Road in Archbald Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
PPL then transitions into the Archbald Mountain Transmission Project with 8 miles of new 230-kV power lines, picking up at the Callender Gap and Sturges project’s switchyard near Business Route 6 about half a mile shy of the Jermyn border, installing new power lines running to the mountains east of the Casey Highway, where PPL would build a switchyard and substation. The new lines then continue south to Moosic Lake Road.
The upgrades are intended to “support load growth and new customer facilities,” according to PPL fact sheets on the projects.
“We’re supporting load growth, strengthening reliability, and building new customer facilities in Lackawanna County,” the company said on its pplarchbaldmountainproject.com website.
PPL registered the domain name on Jan. 13, according to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
If approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, PPL anticipates beginning construction in the summer of 2027, with work taking up to three years and concluding by summer 2030.
Archbald currently accounts for half of all data center proposals in Lackawanna County with six proposed campuses totaling 51 individual buildings. A data center developer also applied this month to build a power plant on Eynon Jermyn Road across the street from a nearly 620,000-square-foot data center.
Elsewhere in Lackawanna County, there are at least six other data center campus proposals, including in Clifton and Covington townships, Dickson City, Jessup, Olyphant and Ransom Twp., though those proposals are tied up in court and zoning.
Ties to data centers
Neither PPL’s dedicated website nor its attached documents directly reference data centers, but all five customer facilities listed on project maps correspond with the sites of proposed data center campuses, though one of those campuses was initially intended for a large warehousing park.
The planned upgrades include customer facilities for the Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus, Project Gravity, Project Scott and a “Project Triboro” in Olyphant. Although it is not included as a customer facility, the proposed Project Green Mountain will have a new switchyard and substation near it.
Asked about the role data centers play in driving the upgrades, PPL said it does not publicly identify individual customers due to confidentiality and competitive considerations.
“We regularly receive requests from customers seeking new or extended electric service, including in this region,” according to the utility. “At the same time … portions of this transmission system in Northeastern Pennsylvania, they were built decades ago.”
The systems require upgrades to continue operating safely and reliably while meeting growing demand, PPL said.
“These transmission projects are planned years in advance, and they’re designed to address multiple needs, including reliability, resilience and then evolving customer demand across the region,” according to the utility.
Wildcat Ridge, Project Scott and eventually Project Triboro — once Olyphant adopts zoning standards for data centers — will need zoning approvals from Archbald and Olyphant borough councils, and should any of those projects fail to materialize, PPL pointed to its payment structure where data centers or other large industrial customers will pay for upgrades that solely benefit them, whereas systemwide benefits, which are allocated under regulatory oversight, are paid for across all customers.
PPL coordinates with municipalities, but permitting and zoning decisions are separate from the transmission project, the utility said, noting it has safeguards in place to ensure increased demand from large users does not unfairly affect customer bills.
PPL will have binding agreements with large-load customers agreeing to financial and usage commitments, and the company proposed creating a new rate class for large-load customers that would require a 10-year commitment designed to reduce the risk of other customers paying for infrastructure costs if a large customer scales back or exits after only a few years, the company said.
About the upgrades
PPL describes the new, 12 miles of proposed 230-kV transmission lines as approximately 120- to 150-foot-tall steel monopole structures with a dark-brown protective coating.
Those transmission lines would connect to three new switchyards — the Sturges Switchyard, the Callender Gap Switchyard and the Winton Switchyard — and a substation known as the Archbald Mountain Substation, according to PPL.
A switchyard houses electrical infrastructure, including circuit breakers and protective devices, required to safely control the flow of high-voltage power across transmission lines, according to PPL.
The utility defines substations as housing electric infrastructure — including circuit breakers, protective devices and transformers — required to safely control and transform the flow and level of high-voltage power across transmission lines. Data centers use substations to “step down” power, reducing the electricity from the 230-kV lines into a lower voltage usable by the computer hardware.
Construction includes installing environmental controls and access roads, clearing trees in any new right of way, and installing the infrastructure itself, according to PPL.
“We’re committed to minimizing disruption as much as possible in any future construction,” the utility wrote in a frequently-asked-questions document, or FAQ.
All disturbed areas will be restored upon completion, according to the utility.
Callender Gap and Sturges
The Callender Gap and Sturges Transmission Project would begin at the existing Lackawanna Substation in the northwest corner of Blakely above Business Route 6, extending the transmission lines 1 mile to a proposed 230-kV Sturges Switchyard; additional 230-kV lines would extend to nearby customer facilities, according to PPL.
Those customer facilities correspond with the Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus, which proposes to build 14 two-story data centers, each with a 202,340-square-foot footprint along Business Route 6 and extending up Route 247, or Wildcat Road, across 574.2 mountainside acres.
Wildcat Ridge’s conditional use application filed with Archbald in December depicts two user substations and a PPL switchyard aligning with PPL’s map.
Plans for the Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus document two substations and a PPL switchyard, aligning with two customer facilities and PPL’s proposed Sturges Switchyard in its new infrastructure plans. (SCREENSHOT VIA CORNELL REALTY MANAGEMENT’S DEC. 15 CONDITIONAL USE APPLICATION)
PPL Electric Utilities’ plans for its Callender Gap & Sturges Transmission Project. (SCREENSHOT VIA pplarchbaldmountainproject.com)
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Plans for the Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus document two substations and a PPL switchyard, aligning with two customer facilities and PPL’s proposed Sturges Switchyard in its new infrastructure plans. (SCREENSHOT VIA CORNELL REALTY MANAGEMENT’S DEC. 15 CONDITIONAL USE APPLICATION)
The power lines would then extend about 3 miles following the existing 230-kV lines above Business Route 6, connecting into a new Callender Gap Switchyard just east of Business Route 6 where the power lines currently cross the road. Two customer facilities on PPL’s site map connecting to the switchyard on either side correspond with the proposed Project Scott and Project Gravity data center campuses.
Project Scott, which is on the south side of the power lines, proposes to build up to 18 two-story data centers, each up to 90 feet tall with a 154,850-square-foot footprint across about 400 acres between Business Route 6 and Eynon Jermyn Road.
Plans for the Project Scott data center campus show PPL’s existing 230-kilovolt power lines bordering the property to the north. PPL’s plans show a customer facility in the same location connecting to a new switchyard. (SCREENSHOT VIA ARCHBALD I LLC’S DEC. 15 CONDITIONAL USE APPLICATION)
PPL Electric Utilities’ plans for its Callender Gap & Sturges Transmission Project. (SCREENSHOT VIA pplarchbaldmountainproject.com)
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Plans for the Project Scott data center campus show PPL’s existing 230-kilovolt power lines bordering the property to the north. PPL’s plans show a customer facility in the same location connecting to a new switchyard. (SCREENSHOT VIA ARCHBALD I LLC’S DEC. 15 CONDITIONAL USE APPLICATION)
PPL’s proposed Callender Gap Switchyard is just north of the power lines at the site of Project Gravity, which plans to build seven two-story, 70-foot-tall data centers, each with a 138,000-square-foot footprint, across 180-plus acres. The project’s October 2025 water obstruction and encroachment joint permit application filed with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection includes a switching station in the same spot as PPL’s switchyard.
Plans for the Project Gravity data center campus depict PPL’s existing 230-kilovolt power lines bordering it to the south, with a “switching station” in its southwest corner, which aligns with PPL’s proposed Callender Gap Switchyard. (SCREENSHOT VIA ARCHBALD 25 DEVELOPER LLC’S OCTOBER 2025 WATER OBSTRUCTION AND ENCROACHMENT JOINT PERMIT APPLICATION)
Plans for the Project Gravity data center campus depict PPL’s existing 230-kilovolt power lines bordering it to the south, with a “switching station” in its southwest corner, which aligns with PPL’s proposed Callender Gap Switchyard. (SCREENSHOT VIA ARCHBALD 25 DEVELOPER LLC’S OCTOBER 2025 WATER OBSTRUCTION AND ENCROACHMENT JOINT PERMIT APPLICATION)
PPL Electric Utilities’ plans for its Callender Gap & Sturges Transmission Project. (SCREENSHOT VIA pplarchbaldmountainproject.com)
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Plans for the Project Gravity data center campus depict PPL’s existing 230-kilovolt power lines bordering it to the south, with a “switching station” in its southwest corner, which aligns with PPL’s proposed Callender Gap Switchyard. (SCREENSHOT VIA ARCHBALD 25 DEVELOPER LLC’S OCTOBER 2025 WATER OBSTRUCTION AND ENCROACHMENT JOINT PERMIT APPLICATION)
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Archbald Mountain
The Archbald Mountain Transmission Project connects into the Callender Gap Switchyard, extending a new 230-kV line about 4 miles southeast following existing lines between Project Scott and Project Gravity, continuing to the newly proposed Archbald Mountain Substation east of the Casey Highway and south of Aylesworth Park, according to PPL maps and accompanying documents.
The project does not reference the proposed Project Green Mountain data center campus, nor does the campus appear as a customer facility on PPL’s maps. However, plans show the Archbald Mountain Substation and Winton Switchyard to the north and south of the campus, respectively. The Winton Switchyard is about 1 mile south of the Archbald Mountain Substation, according to PPL.
Project Green Mountain filed a conditional use application with Archbald in January to build seven two-story, 65-foot-tall data centers, each with a 138,000-square-foot footprint, across nearly 271 acres at the site of the Stavola Quarry. Project Green Mountain’s site plan includes a PPL switchyard on its property, though the location is on the northern end of the campus, aligning it closer to PPL’s proposed substation.
PPL Electric Utilities’ plans for its Archbald Mountain Transmission Project. (SCREENSHOT VIA pplarchbaldmountainproject.com)
A site plan for the Project Green Mountain data center campus depicts a PPL switchyard in red on its northwest corner. Although the campus is not listed on PPL’s maps, PPL proposes a nearby switchyard and substation as part of its Archbald Mountain Transmission Project. (SCREENSHOT VIA GREEN MOUNTAIN 6 LLC’S JAN. 26 CONDITIONAL USE APPLICATION)
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PPL Electric Utilities’ plans for its Archbald Mountain Transmission Project. (SCREENSHOT VIA pplarchbaldmountainproject.com)
PPL addressed that discrepancy in an emailed statement, saying, “At this stage, we are still exploring all options for final location of the switchyard but we are looking in that general vicinity.”
The power lines will then extend from the Winton Switchyard about 3 miles south to a new customer facility near Moosic Lake Road, according to PPL.
PPL’s map references a customer facility near the intersection of Moosic Lake Road and Marshwood Road. The plans show multiple possible transmission routes for the new power lines ending in a large parcel of land flanked by the Casey Highway, Marshwood Road and Moosic Lake Road, which corresponds to another proposed data center campus in Olyphant.
Olyphant solicitor and borough Manager C.J. Mustacchio said earlier this month that a developer was looking to build 12 data centers at the site of the proposed Triboro Industrial Park, which previously sought to construct four warehouses totaling 4.5 million square feet of space. A marketing brochure for the industrial park, which still references warehouses, shows the facilities would align with the spot where PPL’s proposed transmission lines enter the property. A Pennsylvania American Water map recently referred to the campus as Project Triboro.
PPL also will acquire about 2 miles of additional right of way for future needs, with plans to begin working with landowners to purchase easements following the March 31 open house.
The open house will have a project team available to provide information and answer any questions, according to PPL. There is no set agenda and no formal presentations.
To share feedback or ask questions about the project, email ArchbaldMountainProject@pplweb.com.