Infrastructure Investments Provide Best-in-Class Reliability: PSEG Long Island is prepared for hot weather and 2020 summer storms

Wednesday, June 10th

PSEG Long Island is prepared to meet peak demand during extreme heat situations in the upcoming summer months. In fact, the system improvements made throughout the company will help to provide best-in-class electric reliability to Long Island and the Rockaway customers all year long.

“Our job is to ensure customers have the reliable electric system they need to power their lives, and to be ready to respond to any situation, pandemic or no pandemic, when needed,” said John O’Connell, vice president of Transmission and Distribution, PSEG Long Island. “By making strategic investments, we’re building a more robust and resilient electric grid that will serve our customers well into the future.”

Operating under its COVID-19 pandemic plan, PSEG Long Island continues to work on essential reliability projects. Across Long Island and the Rockaways, the company’s summer preparation efforts have focused on improvements to substations and transmission and distribution equipment, as well as inspections of existing circuits and equipment using drones and helicopters equipped with infrared technology.

PSEG Long Island’s recent system improvements include:

New transformers installed in Hauppauge, Elmont, Hempstead, and Malverne substations to provide additional capacity during peak demand

New distribution feeder lines installed in North Lindenhurst and Rockaway Beach areas to accommodate load growth

Distribution circuits upgraded in Riverhead, Mineola, Carle Place, Massapequa, and Rockaway Beach to improve circuit reliability

A voltage regulation device installed at the Whiteside substation to optimize power flow in the area

Two capacitor banks installed at our Deer Park and MacArthur substations to support voltage locally and provide quality power to the respective areas

26 transmission system circuit breakers added or replaced for enhanced system reliability

Since the implementation of the storm hardening program funded by FEMA in 2014, storm hardening and reliability work has been completed on approximately 99 percent of the circuits identified for improvements. This significant infrastructure investment stretches all the way from the Rockaways to Shelter Island. Storm-hardened circuits have seen a significant reduction in storm damage and 45% fewer outages.

As the company’s initial five-year program concludes, PSEG Long Island is proud to continue storm-hardening its electric circuits with Power On, a new initiative that will strengthen distribution lines along the most vulnerable circuits across Long Island and the Rockaways. 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 electric system, 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 2019, PSEG Long Island removed more than 11,000 hazardous trees and/or large limbs along the distribution and transmission system and trimmed 3,000 miles of distribution and transmission line clearance in accordance with the industry best practice clearance standard. This 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 3,000 vine locations across Long Island and the Rockaways.

The company’s rigorous preparedness program for summer also includes conducting annual hurricane and tropical storm drills and employee training; developing emergency summer operating plans; and performing summer peak reliability analysis.

Importantly, PSEG Long Island continues improving customer service through technology advancements. In 2019, PSEG Long Island began offering online chat, the Amazon Alexa skill, and customer service via social media to provide additional means to easily do business. The MyPower map was introduced to educate customers on reliability projects across the service territory and access outage and restoration information. In January, PSEG Long Island introduced its new customer mobile app for iOS and Android devices, which provides even more mobile-friendly functionality.