The transaction encompasses property south of Lackawanna County\u2019s Aylesworth Park on both the east and west sides of the Casey Highway. The property is segmented by the highway and existing PPL transmission lines.<\/p>\n
The utility plans to upgrade the transmission lines as part of a Midvalley-based\u00a0project<\/a> that involves building new power lines and infrastructure spanning the sites of multiple proposed data center campuses.\n<\/p>\n The property also includes undeveloped land in the Number 5 Hill section of Archbald between Rock Street and the Lackawanna River, continuing south toward Church Street.\n<\/p>\n Rock Street is seen in Archbald Monday, October 26. 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n Undeveloped land is seen east of the Governor Casey Highway in Jermyn, south of Aylesworth Park Monday, October 26, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n Show Caption<\/p>\n 1 of 2<\/p>\n Rock Street is seen in Archbald Monday, October 26. 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n Expand<\/a><\/p>\n As part of the sale, the Kotchos retain a swath of land below Lackawanna Street and Hudson Street near the border of Archbald and Jermyn.\n<\/p>\n In a statement emailed Monday afternoon, PPL Electric spokeswoman Dana N. Burns said the property was acquired for PPL Electric\u2019s transmission system \u2014 not for the construction of a data center or power plant.<\/p>\n The utility\u2019s parent company, PPL Corporation, secured more than 11 square miles of northern Lackawanna County this year as part of a joint venture with Blackstone Infrastructure and Invitium Energy to explore building power plants for data centers. The utility\u2019s land acquisition is separate from PPL Corporation\u2019s joint venture, Burns wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cWe acquired the Archbald property through a negotiated agreement with the property owners,\u201d Burns said in the email. \u201cPlanning and development activities are still preliminary, and we do not have additional details to share at this time regarding specific facilities that may be located on the property or potential construction timelines.\u201d<\/p>\n As PPL Electric\u2019s service territory continues to grow, the utility periodically acquires property that may support electric infrastructure needed to maintain reliable service for customers, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur role is to help support the regional transmission grid through careful, long-term planning that strengthens reliability and meets future energy needs,\u201d Burns said.<\/p>\n Attempts to reach the Kotchos were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n PPL\u2019s presence<\/p>\n The land borders property that PPL Electric\u2019s parent company, PPL Corp., is under agreement to purchase as part of its joint venture with Blackstone, known as Invitium Energy. PPL Corp. is distinct from PPL Electric Utilities; Pennsylvania prohibits utility companies from owning and operating their own power plants.\n<\/p>\n Although the property is in the vicinity of some of PPL Electric\u2019s proposed new\u00a0infrastructure, it does not appear to overlap with the Archbald Mountain Project.<\/p>\n The Archbald Mountain Project involves constructing about 12 miles of new power lines, three new switchyards and a substation, according to PPL\u2019s project website. PPL\u2019s maps for the infrastructure upgrades depict multiple customer facilities \u2014 coinciding with proposed data center campuses \u2014 that tie into the new switchyards, including the recently denied<\/a> Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus, Project Scott and Project Gravity.\n<\/p>\n As part of the project, PPL would extend new transmission lines from Callender Gap Switchyard on the northwest corner of Project Gravity\u2019s property near Business Route 6, following existing power lines extending southeast across Main Street and continuing east across the Casey Highway, bifurcating PPL\u2019s newly acquired property.<\/p>\n An aerial map hosted as part of a virtual open house<\/a> points to Archbald Mountain Substation south of PPL\u2019s property near the proposed Project Green Mountain data center campus at the Stavola Quarry. Project Green Mountain proposes to build seven two-story data centers, each with a 138,000-square-foot footprint.\n<\/p>\n PPL\u2019s land also borders the southeast tip of Invitium Energy\u2019s land deal with Dunmore businessman Dominick DeNaples totaling nearly 7,200 acres. Earlier this year, a land holding company for the joint venture between PPL Corp. and Blackstone, NE Keystone Property Holdings LLC, entered into memorandums with DeNaples in April and June for a west campus that begins in Carbondale Twp. above Business Route 6, lines the city and extends north through Fell Twp.; and an east campus that includes properties spanning from near Aylesworth Park north to the Brownell Reservoir in Carbondale Twp.\n<\/p>\n The joint venture also filed interconnection requests with grid operator PJM for two natural gas power plants totaling 2.25 gigawatts: a 1,500-megawatt facility and a 750-megawatt facility. Invitium has not disclosed where it would build the power plants, though the timing of the interconnection requests corresponds with the west campus memorandum. Representatives with the joint venture attended a Fell Twp. planning commission meeting<\/a> in September to discuss developing power plants to fuel potential co-located data centers, though Invitium would only build the power plants without owning, operating or constructing the data centers.<\/p>\n The property falls into Archbald\u2019s resource conservation zoning district, which the borough\u2019s March 2023 zoning ordinance defines as, \u201cAreas with significant steep slopes, creek valleys, wetlands and formerly mined lands that may not be suitable for intense development. To provide for lower intensity residential and recreational uses, with uses encouraged to be clustered on the most suitable portions of a tract.\u201d<\/p>\n Archbald\u2019s resource conservation district permits public utility facilities as special exceptions. Special exceptions follow a very similar process as the conditional use designation used to regulate data centers in Archbald, except the zoning hearing board decides on the project rather than borough council. While Archbald\u2019s zoning ordinance regulates public utility facilities, it also defers to a public utility exemption in the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, or MPC, which provides the legal framework for municipal zoning.<\/p>\n![\"Rock](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-DATACENTERS-1027-03.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Undeveloped](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-DATACENTERS-1027-02.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"PPL](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/STT-L-PPLPLANS-0325-02.jpg\")
PPL Electric Utilities\u2019 plans for its Archbald Mountain Transmission Project. (SCREENSHOT VIA pplarchbaldmountainproject.com)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1793138891_119_STT-L-INVITIUM-1002-1.jpg\")
A Lackawanna County Department of Planning map depicting Invitium Energy\u2019s land under agreement to purchase in northern Lackawanna County, in addition to the sites of other data center campuses throughout the county. (COURTESY OF LACKAWANNA COUNTY COMMISSIONER BILL GAUGHAN)
\nZoning<\/p>\n