PSEG Long Island restores all 90,000 plus customers affected by Quinn

Power company prepares for third nor’easter

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In total, Winter Storm Quinn on March 7 brought snow, thunder and winds to Long Island, and interrupted power for more than 90,000 Public Service Enterprise Group Long Island customers - most impacted during the storm’s worst moments in the afternoon.

According to PSEG Long Island, the utility had restored all of its affected customer’s power by March 10.

Now, PSEG faces its next significant challenge with a third Nor’easter expected to make landfall Monday night and into Tuesday.

In an announcement on Monday, John O'Connell, PSEG Long Island ‘s Vice President of Transmission & Distribution, re-affirmed PSEG Long Island’s preparedness for the third storm in 11 days.

Last week, O'Connell spoke about the enormity of the last significant weather event and the difficulty of workers getting around Long Island due to poor road conditions and high winds.

“Storm Quinn was a powerful storm,” he said, on March 8. “But through back-to-back powerful nor’easters, our crews, customer service and support personnel worked 16 hour shifts until all customers had power.”

PSEG Long Island currently has 1.1 million customers on Long Island and in the Rockaways. PSEG Long Island employs about 2,200 people, who helped with power restoration on Long Island.

O’Connell revealed that those workers fixed the majority of power outages within 24 hours of Quinn’s conclusion, and praised them for fixing six percent of its customer’s power in such a short time.

“To go from eight percent to two percent in just about 24 hours is no small task,” O’Connell said, “Our employees are doing a fantastic job.”

PSEG Long Island also had to restore customer’s power from a March 2 storm. O’Connell said that all of PSEG Long Island’s customers had power prior to Quinn’s impact — with PSEG making final repairs a day before Quinn.

“What it came down to was an additional challenge to our employees,” O’Connell said, “because they worked from one storm, made the temporary repairs and the permanent repairs, and went right into this storm.”

“While the forecasted conditions may make it difficult for our crews to get around,” O’Connell said, “our customers should be comforted knowing our crews stand at the ready to begin restoring service, in the event of any outages, as safely and quickly as conditions allow.”