Eric Goldman, a Glen Ridge resident, complained to the NJ Board of Public Utilities about outages in his neighborhood and was pleasantly surprised with the response from PSE&G.
Homes in the south end of Glen Ridge, including those on Midland Avenue, Adams Place, Lorraine, Madison and Willow streets, last week experienced an off-and-on power blackout for a day.
It was nothing new. The area for some time has been experiencing power failures. Mayor Deborah Mans said her office and the borough council have been in contact with PSE&G for several months.
“As a result of this, PSE&G performed an analysis of the Llewellyn, Maolis, and Glenwood Avenue corridor circuits serving the southern end of Glen Ridge,” she said. “At the end of July 2025, PSE&G replaced the circuits to address load capacity and low voltage concerns based on the results of the analysis. The more recent outage occurred on a different circuit and PSE&G has advised us that they replaced the cable.”
Municipal representatives, she added, will be meeting with PSE&G later this month to discuss a more comprehensive solution.
Eric Goldman, a 20-year resident of Lorraine Street, said outages were common: the company makes a change, it is good for a while and then another failure. When it happened last Wednesday, Oct. 8, he went to the NJ Board of Public Utilities website and filed a complaint. He has complained about outages before, but this time he got a call back from PSE&G.
“It was a very different experience,” he said. “The rep was very knowledgeable about our situation. What had happened on Wednesday was that a power cable came down on Llewellyn Avenue, in Bloomfield, and an old transformer exploded.”
He understood from the caller, and as luck would have it, that PSE&G was presenting an internal plan to address the problem that very day and apparently the plan was approved.
He was informed that new poles and powerlines would be installed in the south end of the borough which would be divided into two smaller grids functioning independently. A power line connecting them will be severed.
“Hopefully, upgrades and smaller units will stop overloading equipment,” she said. “This plan existed before Wednesday, but they’re very aware of our
situation.”
Goldman said he hoped the recent repairs are good enough for the time being.
“They absolutely want this new equipment in place before next summer,” he said.
Goldman was pleasantly surprised by the response he received after complaining to the board.
“The people that reached out to me were so respectful, it was wonderful,” he said. “They knew down to the last detail. The man responsible for maintaining our grid came to my house and explained. A repair crew was coming from Irvington and he said he wouldn’t leave until my power was restored. But before he left, at night, he stopped by to say goodbye. It really changed my perception of the company.”
Goldman said he had previously thought the company was uncaring. Usually, what he hears from them is that the problem is because Glen Ridge has its power lines in the backyard and not the front yard.
“I’ve complained to PSE&G a lot,” he said. “But complaining to the utility board gave me different results. If there is a problem, keep trying until you find a
solution. And talk to your neighbors. I wouldn’t have thought to contact the utility board, but my neighbor told me to do it.”
About the Author
