(NEWARK, N.J. – June 20, 2019) More than 150 Public Service Electric and Gas employees today participated in a five-hour emergency exercise to improve New Jersey’s largest utility’s ability to respond to a calamity. The drill simulated a loss of power to 75% or more of our customers, an annual exercise in keeping with PSE&G’s commitment to provide safe, reliable and resilient energy.

The tabletop exercise involved participants who serve at every utility department and represent about 8,000 PSE&G employees who would be engaged during an actual emergency. The drill was observed by staff from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.

“This drill is a great opportunity to learn and practice so that when a severe event occurs, we are prepared to quickly restore service to our customers,”  said Paul Toscarelli, PSE&G’s emergency preparedness director. “Today’s exercise is the culmination of year-round planning, training, auditing and equipment maintenance and system checks. One of our biggest challenges in a storm is damage assessment, so we recently trained another 700 people in this area. All of our county liaisons have had updated training, along with outage management system training in our divisions.”

In addition to a summer preparedness checklist and tests of contingency plans, PSE&G has worked on more than 25 major projects - investing nearly $3 billion in infrastructure improvements since last summer to enhance resiliency and maintain reliability. PSE&G customers have power more than 99 percent of the time.

Toscarelli said storm events have the potential to cause great damage and he encouraged customers to take the time to prepare for summer storms. 

“One of the most important things customers can do is connect with us ahead of a storm to receive text alerts and other outage communications,” Toscarelli said. “It’s also a great idea for customers to learn about local resources and make their first responders aware of major medical and other special needs.”

Tips for what to do before, during and after a storm are available on the PSE&G storm safety website.

Stay away from downed wires:

Any downed wires (PSE&G’s, cable, telephone, etc.) always should be considered “live.” Stay at least 30 feet away from downed wires. Do not approach or drive over a downed line and do not touch anything with which it might be in contact. If a wire falls on or near your car, stay inside the car, call 911, and do not get out until PSE&G de-energizes the line. If you MUST get out of the vehicle because it is on fire: jump as far as possible away from the vehicle, with both feet landing on the ground at the same time, keep feet as close together as possible and hop or shuffle away.

Other important safety notes:

To prevent carbon monoxide poisoning, do not run gasoline-powered generators in a garage or an enclosed space.

If you are on life-sustaining medical equipment, ensure that you alert PSE&G and notify your local police and fire departments. For more information, visit pseg.com/life. Also, consider signing up for the state’s Register Ready, New Jersey’s special needs registry for disasters.

Stay connected with PSE&G:

• Compile a list of emergency phone numbers; include PSE&G Customer Service 1-800-436-PSEG. 
• Go to pseg.com/myaccount to sign up to report outages online and to check restoration progress.
• Go to pseg.com/outagecenter to check the “Outage Map,” which is updated every 15 minutes with PSE&G outage information, and to register for MyAlerts to receive text notifications.
• You can report an outage by texting “OUT” to 4PSEG (47734).
• “Like” PSEG on Facebook and follow PSEG on Twitter @PSEGdelivers.

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PSE&G
Public Service Electric and Gas Co. (PSE&G) is New Jersey’s oldest and largest gas and electric delivery public utility, serving nearly three-quarters of the state’s population. PSE&G is the winner of the ReliabilityOne Award for superior electric system reliability as well as the 2018 Outstanding Customer Reliability Experience Award. PSE&G is a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PSEG) (NYSE:PEG), a diversified energy company. PSEG has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for North America for 11 consecutive years.