Sponsored by:
Assemblyman GREGORY P. MCGUCKIN
District 10 (Monmouth and Ocean)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman Flynn, Assemblyman Scharfenberger and Assemblywoman Fantasia
SYNOPSIS
Requires electric public utilities to submit report to BPU following major outage events.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning electric public utility reporting requirements and supplementing Title 48 of the Revised Statues.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. As used in this section:
“Board” means the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities or any successor agency.
“Electric public utility” or “utility” means a public utility, as that term is defined in R.S.48:2-13, that transmits and distributes electricity to end users within the State.
“Major outage event” means any interruption of electric public utility service that causes at least 2,000 customers of an electric public utility to lose electric public utility service for a period of at least 24 consecutive hours.
b. Within 30 days following the conclusion of the major outage event, an electric public utility shall report the following information, at a minimum, to the board:
(1) a description of the reason for the major outage event, including the exact locations where the major outage event occurred;
(2) the total number of electric public utility customers affected by the major outage event within the relevant service area;
(3) a timeline of events, including the onset of the electric public utility system failures, and the completion of power restoration efforts by the electric public utility;
(4) an engineering analysis, including any operational, equipment, infrastructure, or engineering deficiencies that contributed to the cause or duration of the major outage event;
(5) copies of all public communications made by the electric public utility to local government officials and the general public from the onset of the major outage event to the final restoration of service;
(6) an assessment of the effectiveness of the electric public utility’s response to the major outage event; and
(7) corrective actions the electric public utility intends to implement to reduce the likelihood or duration of similar major outage events in the future.
c. Each report required by this section shall be signed, under oath, by the President or Chief Executive Officer of the electric public utility and the electric public utility’s chief engineer or equivalent position.
2. This act shall take
effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires that, within 30 days following the conclusion of a major outage event, as that term is defined in the bill, an electric public utility (utility) is required to submit a report to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. The report is to include, at a minimum: (1) a description of the reason for the major outage event; (2) the total number of the utility’s customers affected by the major outage event within the relevant service area; (3) a timeline of events including the onset of the electric public utility system failures, and the completion of power restoration efforts by the electric public utility; (4) an engineering analysis, including any operational, equipment, infrastructure, or engineering deficiencies that contributed to the cause or duration of the major outage event; (5) copies of all public communications made by the electric public utility to local government officials and the general public from the onset of the major outage event to the final restoration of service; (6) an assessment of the effectiveness of the utility’s response to the major outage event; and (7) corrective actions the utility intends to implement to reduce the likelihood or duration of similar major outage events in the future.
Each report is to be signed, under oath, by the President or Chief Executive Officer of the utility and the utility’s chief engineer or equivalent position.