Late yesterday afternoon we had an extensive outage affecting parts of Union county. All impacted municipalities were notified.

However, this is not unusual after a storm of this magnitude and may continue throughout the region and state in the days ahead.  As we restore customers after an extensive storm such as Sandy , we needed to make a significant number of temporary repairs to our electric delivery system. Crews will now begin to make those repairs permanent and return the system to its normal design. Many of the out-of-state crews are still here and will help us complete some of this work during the next few days. To do so safely, we may need to take a circuit out of service for a period of time interrupting power to those customers. Service will be restored as soon as possible. 

Please be aware of this and communicate in most effective way to your residents.

Thank you very much-

Eileen Leahey

 

PSE&G storm update -- Nov. 12, 2012 at 4:30 p.m.

PSE&G has restored power to virtually all customers affected by Hurricane Sandy and the nor’easter by Monday morning.

However, at about 2:40 p.m. today, PSE&G’s Sewaren switching station went out of service. Personnel were immediately on site. The outage affected about 45,000 customers in portions of: Perth Amboy, Rahway, Woodbridge, Carteret, Fanwood, Westfield, Mountainside, Edison, Plainfield and Scotch Plains. The Sewaren station was one of a number of switching and substations that experienced significant flooding as a result of Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 29. All customers were restored by about 4:15 p.m.

While restoration from the storms is substantially complete, we know there are some customers who may still be out of service as a result of the two storms or localized problems with their electric service. Repairs will continue on a 24/7 basis to address all customer issues. Individual customers without service in a neighborhood with power should call 800 436-7734 and a crew will be assigned to complete the work.

To restore customers after a storm of this magnitude, we needed to make a significant number of temporary repairs to our electric delivery system. Crews will now begin to make those repairs permanent and return the system to its normal design. Many of the out-of-state crews are still here and will help us complete some of this work during the next few days. To do so safely, we may need to take a circuit out of service for a period of time interrupting power to those customers. Service will be restored as soon as possible.

"Recovering from this storm has been grueling, not only for our customers who endured many hardships without electricity and heat, but also for the men and women who have been working non-stop since Oct. 30," said Ralph LaRossa, PSE&G president and COO.

"While we have restored nearly all 1.7 million customers affected by Sandy , we know we have more work to do. We will not rest until every last customer has their power and our permanent repairs are completed," he said. LaRossa said that as a result of the impact of the storm and the temporary repairs, for a period of time, the system may be less reliable than usual, and there may be more outages than the utility would experience in a normal day.

"The good news is that our restoration time will be faster," he said. "We ask for your continued patience as we work to restore our system to normal and once again provide the high level of reliability our customers have come to expect."