NEWARK, N.J., Aug. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Public Service
Electric and Gas (PSE&G) Company, New
Jersey's largest electric and gas utility, is closely
monitoring the track of Hurricane Irene and is making emergency
preparations should the storm bring heavy rain and strong winds to
our service territory. At this time, the storm is expected to begin
impacting New Jersey as early as
Saturday night and sweep up the coast toward New England by early
Monday morning.
In anticipation of Hurricane Irene, PSE&G has all available
personnel ready to respond. The utility is also ensuring that
additional supplies, such as poles and pole-top equipment, are on
hand to promptly respond and restore service should the storm
result in outages.
Clearly, a storm like Hurricane Irene has the potential to
interrupt service. High winds might cause trees to brush up against
power lines, and lightning could strike and damage trees or
pole-top equipment. There also is the potential for trees to be
uprooted given the recent heavy rains.
Depending on the severity of the storm, response times for both
electric and gas emergency services may be longer than usual.
PSE&G asks for our customers' patience and cooperation as we
work to safely restore service as quickly as possible.
To report downed wires or power outages, customers should call
PSE&G's Customer Service line at 1-800-436-PSEG.
PSE&G uses an automated system to handle customer calls
as efficiently as possible. Customers who get an automated response
when calling PSE&G are encouraged to use it, as it is designed
to route their calls to the right destination quickly. The system
also provides the option to speak directly to a customer service
representative. If you have specific information regarding damage
to wires, transformers or poles, we ask that you speak with a
representative to provide that information.
Customers with a handheld device, or who are at an alternate
location with power, can also report power outages and view the
status of their outage by logging in to My Account at
pseg.com. General outage activity throughout our service territory
is available online at www.pseg.com/outagecenter and updates are
posted on pseg.com during severe weather.
In addition, if outages are widespread, the utility will
activate its Twitter page to keep the public informed about our
restoration progress. Sign up as a follower at
http://twitter.com/psegoutageinfo to monitor restoration
progress.
Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) is
New Jersey's oldest and largest
regulated gas and electric delivery utility, serving nearly
three-quarters of the state's population. PSE&G is the winner
of the ReliabilityOne Award for superior electric system
reliability. PSE&G is a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise
Group Incorporated (PSEG) (NYSE: PEG), a diversified energy company
(www.pseg.com)
Want to know what's new at PSEG? Go to www.pseg.com/getnews
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SOURCE Public Service Electric & Gas Company (PSE&G)