PSEG Long Island Is Prepared for Summer 2021

Successful test of outage management and telephony systems completed

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Jun 03, 2021, 08:00 ET

UNIONDALE, N.Y., June 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PSEG Long Island is prepared for hurricane season and to meet peak demand during extreme heat situations this summer. The company's ongoing system improvements and enhancements to the grid help provide electric reliability to Long Island and the Rockaways throughout the year.

Since last August, PSEG Long Island has incorporated numerous enhancements and upgrades to the electric grid, its systems and its storm processes, including its contingency procedures. PSEG Long Island's systems have undergone upgrades, performance tuning and numerous tests.

"We are prepared and ready to respond," said Daniel Eichhorn, president and chief operating officer, PSEG Long Island. "PSEG Long Island is committed to continually improving system reliability and enhancing the experience our customers have when they connect with us, and we have been working nonstop to fulfill that commitment. PSEG Long Island continues to make strategic investments to serve our customers today and in the future."

IT Systems Enhancements and Testing Success
PSEG Long Island has continued to make enhancements to its IT systems and has conducted robust testing of the outage management and telephony systems. Last week, PSEG Long Island completed a successful end-to-end test of the version 5.5 outage management and telephony systems in an extreme weather scenario. This end-to-end test is in addition to other successful tests, which included one simulating up to 90% of the customer base reporting outages over a 24-hour period.

Business Continuity and Emergency Procedures
PSEG Long Island updated its business continuity and emergency procedures to reflect changes and updates to address PSEG Long Island's response in the event of a failure of critical systems. Since last August, PSEG Long Island has conducted three drills of these procedures with its dedicated workforce.

Electric Infrastructure Improvements
Across Long Island and the Rockaways, PSEG Long Island has prepared the electric infrastructure by focusing on substation, and transmission and distribution improvements, as well as circuit and equipment inspections using drones, helicopters and infrared technology.

PSEG Long Island's recent infrastructure improvements include:

New transformers installed in Elmont, Uniondale, Culloden Point, Roslyn, Far Rockaway and Flowerfield substations to provide additional capacity during peak demand
4 new distribution feeder lines installed in Elmont, Uniondale, Roslyn and Flowerfield areas to accommodate load growth
6 distribution circuits upgraded in Kings Point, North Hills, Massapequa, Mitchel Gardens, Lake Success and Rockaway Beach to improve circuit reliability
37 transmission system circuit breakers added or replaced for enhanced system reliability
A new transmission circuit installed between the Riverhead and Canal substation
A transmission circuit upgraded between the Wildwood and Riverhead substations

Storm Hardening Programs Completed
Since the implementation of the FEMA-funded storm-hardening program funded in 2014, PSEG Long Island has completed storm hardening and reliability work on more than 450 miles of distribution mainline circuits. Storm-hardened circuits have seen a significant reduction in storm damage and 42% fewer outages.

PSEG Long Island is proud to continue its storm hardening work with Power On, an initiative started in the spring of 2020 that will continue to improve reliability by strengthening distribution lines, targeting the most vulnerable circuits across Long Island and the Rockaways. Since the launch, an additional 59 miles of distribution mainline circuits have been storm hardened with stronger poles, thicker wire and other modern equipment. Work on the first circuits began in April 2020 and will continue over the next five years.

To further protect against storm damage to the energy grid, arborists from PSEG Long Island's Tree Trimming program work throughout the year to identify and trim tree limbs in rights of way and along easements that could potentially cause outages during or after a storm. In 2020, PSEG Long Island removed more than 8,000 hazardous trees and/or large limbs along the distribution and transmission system and trimmed 2,400 miles of distribution and transmission line clearance in accordance with the industry best practice clearance standard. This standard preserves the health of the tree and directs future growth away from power lines. In addition, a new vine mitigation program identified, cut and treated more than 4,000 vine locations across Long Island and the Rockaways.

PSEG Long Island also prepares its dedicated workforce for summer by conducting annual hurricane and tropical storm drills and employee training; by developing emergency summer operating plans; and by performing summer-peak reliability analyses to ensure there is sufficient capacity to meet electric demand on high-heat days.

PSEG Long Island
PSEG Long Island operates the Long Island Power Authority's transmission and distribution system under a long-term contract. PSEG Long Island is a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PSEG) (NYSE:PEG), a publicly traded diversified energy company.

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