PSEG Announces Plan to Strengthen Electrical Grid

Photo credit: Bob Klein

PSEG Long Island recently announced they plan to strengthen the electrical grid across Long Island and in the Rockaways through a federally funded, three-year reliability and resiliency project.

Through an agreement between Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) last year, over $729 million of federal recovery funds were secured under the FEMA 406 Mitigation Program for the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA).

“We are committed to making our transmission and distribution system more resilient, able to better withstand extreme weather events,” David Daly, PSEG Long Island president and chief operating officer said. “Superstorm Sandy has had a lasting impact on our customers, and the recovery and healing is still ongoing. The funding provided to the Long Island Power Authority by FEMA allows us to implement significant grid reinforcements that will make the system more resilient to future storms.”

Superstorm Sandy and the Nor’easter that followed greatly affected the transmission and distribution system causing power outages to the service territory’s 1.1 million customers, making it a federal major disaster area.

Power was lost as a result of damaged switching and substations, damaged poles and electrical equipment, and downed trees that brought down wires.

“The projects announced today are just the beginning,” John O’Connell, PSEG Long Island vice president of transmission and distribution operations said. “We aim to upgrade or replace more than 1,000 miles of mainline circuit facilities, elevate and protect flood-prone substations and install innovative automation that isolates faults, all of which will allow us to limit the number of customers impacted by an outage and significantly speed-up their restoration if power is lost.”

Starting on April 6, PSEG Long Island resiliency and reliability project crews will kick-off their efforts in the Town of Southold as well as the Town of Huntington.

FEMA will approve all of the proposals before construction begins and will audit the program costs throughout the process.

The work will be done by PSEG Long Island or PSEG Long Island-licensed and approved contractors.

“I am pleased the FEMA funding is providing the Long Island Power Authority the necessary capital for PSEG Long Island to strengthen the electric grid without putting additional financial burden on its customers,” Jon Kaiman, Special Advisor to Governor Cuomo for Storm Recovery and Chairman, Nassau Interim Finance Authority said. “After Sandy, we know firsthand how important it is to invest in the infrastructure to fortify it to withstand extreme conditions.”

For more information, visit www.psegliny.com/reliability.

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