NEWARK, NJ — PSE&G, New Jersey’s largest utility, has made significant infrastructure investments that are in service for the first time this season, ensuring the utility is better prepared than ever to meet customer demand for safe, reliable electricity this summer.
“PSE&G customers are benefiting from the $2.8 billion in electric and gas investments the utility made this past year,” John Latka, senior vice president of electric and gas operations at PSE&G, said in a press release. “These investments, along with our highly skilled and dedicated workforce, play a big role in making us one of the most reliable utilities in the country, and the most reliable in the Mid-Atlantic region 15 years running.”
Notable projects completed since the start of last summer include:
- Raising and rebuilding, or eliminating of six substations and switching stations that were damaged by water during storms, including stations in Elizabeth, Garfield, Hoboken, Jersey City, Rahway and South Hackensack;
- Installating of relays and remote terminal units at 45 substations and installation in all four divisions of a new Distribution SCADA system, which deploys smart grid technologies to better monitor system operations to increase PSE&G’s ability to more swiftly deploy repair teams;
- Completing of 62 projects that addressed critical facilities, including hospitals, water treatment plants, telecommunications facilities and police stations, thereby creating redundancy in the system, reducing outages when damage occurs.
- Replacing 12 aging station transformers to maintain electric service reliability for customers in Bergen, Camden, Essex, Hudson and Union counties;
- Completing transmission hardening projects to raise station equipment in five flood-prone stations, benefiting customers in Bergen, Camden, Hudson and Union counties; and
- Energizing eight 69,000-volt substations and associated lines to provide increased local transmission supply capacity to customers across PSE&G’s service area, including many living in Bergen, Burlington, Hudson, Passaic and Union counties.
In addition to these electric distribution upgrades, phase 2 of the $1.2 billion Bergen to Linden corridor upgrade is fully energized and completed on schedule. This portion represents the upgrade from Bayway station in Elizabeth, to Linden station. When complete in 2018, the 345-kilovolt line will run from Ridgefield to Linden, maintaining reliability by relieving congestion on other regional transmission lines.
The 2017 forecasted summer peak is 10,057 megawatts. Last year’s peak was 9,800 megawatts, set on Aug. 12. PSE&G’s all-time summer peak was 11,108 megawatts, set on Aug. 2, 2006.
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