Uniondale, NY - March 12, 2018 - PSEG Long Island announced that power restoration from the March 7 nor’easter was completed on Saturday. The storm, which toppled trees and brought down wires across Long Island and the Rockaways, affected 91,734 customers. All but 100 were restored by Friday, with the remainder returned to service yesterday.
“Through back-to-back powerful nor’easters, our crews, customer service and support personnel worked 16 hour shifts until all customers had power,” said John O’Connell, Vice President-Transmission & Distribution, PSEG Long Island. “We know how difficult it is to be without electricity. We thank our customers for their patience and our local, county and state officials for their support and help communicating with residents.”
Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone said, “PSEG Long Island came through for Suffolk County during this past week with two nor'easters wreaking havoc on so many fronts. We’re fortunate Long Island was able to withstand the extreme weather and fared better regionally as a result of the storm preparedness and hardening measures that have enabled the system become more resilient. From communications, coordination and cooperation to sheer hard work under trying circumstances, PSEG Long Island made a difference for the county, our local governments and, most importantly, our residents.”
While the storm still swirled overhead Wednesday night, PSEG Long Island crews were out restoring power.
“On Wednesday night in Woodbury, the storm brought down power lines and damaged a transformer, knocking out power to four of our properties,” said Kevin Murphy, Property Manager, RXR Realty. “PSEG Long Island responded and worked hard in very unfavorable conditions to rapidly restore power. We were very satisfied and appreciated the quick response.”
PSEG Long Island’s ultimate goal is to prevent power outages during storms. To help achieve this, the company has invested in a robust tree-trimming program to keep trees away from power lines, enhanced technology to detect outages, automatic switching devices to minimize the number of customers affected by any one outage, and hardening its grid against severe weather.
Wantagh, N.Y. resident Billy Vasold said PSEG Long Island’s FEMA-funded storm hardening work, including tree trimming and installing stronger poles and wire, kept his lights on and his home warm.
“I know the upgrades made a difference. If PSEG Long Island had not done any of the work in the neighborhood last year, we would have been out of power for a day or two after last weekend’s storm,” said Vasold. “All we had was a flicker. It was really nice.”
PSEG Long Island’s President and COO, Dan Eichhorn said, “Most importantly, restoration work from these back-to-back nor’easters was completed safely. I’m extremely proud of all of our employees who put our customers first and worked tirelessly until everyone was restored.”
PSEG Long Island operates the Long Island Power Authority’s transmission and distribution system under a 12-year contract. PSEG Long Island is a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (NYSE:PEG), a publicly traded diversified energy company with annual revenues of $9.1 billion.