PSEG Long Island launches storm hardening effort in several towns
PSEG Long Island is in the process of doing storm hardening work in four of its communities — Lake Grove, Lake Ronkonkoma, Medford, and East Patchogue.
The work, which began in early January, is part of many system improvements included in the company’s “Power On” program.
“We are working hard to reduce the number of outages that occur during severe weather by strengthening the electric lines that directly power homes and businesses. These Power On infrastructure improvement projects in Lake Grove, Lake Ronkonkoma, Medford, and East Patchogue are part of PSEG Long Island’s ongoing, multi-year effort to continue to improve electric reliability for customers,” Peggy Keane, vice president of construction and operations services, PSEG Long Island, said.
PSEG Long Island’s licensed contractors will work along distribution lines in Lake Grove, Lake Ronkonkoma, Medford and East Patchogue. To ensure traffic moves safely, PSEG Long Island will provide cones, flaggers and signage at the worksites, as needed. The work should be completed in early April.
Specifically, PSEG Long Island will replace some existing utility poles with stronger, more durable poles that are capable of withstanding winds up to 135 mph. The new poles will be approximately the same height as the existing poles, have a stronger base and will be placed no more than 5 feet from the current pole locations. Further, PSEG Long Island will be installing shorter cross arms atop some poles, while current wire will be replaced with more resilient and durable wire.
Since 2014, the company has completed storm hardening and reliability work on more than 1,000 miles of distribution mainline circuits. And since the launch of Power On in 2020, more than 335 miles of the most vulnerable distribution mainline and branch line circuits on Long Island and in the Rockaways have been storm hardened with stronger poles, thicker wire and other modern equipment.
In 2023, the sections of circuits that are storm hardened saw a 44 percent reduction in damage leading to outages compared to the rest of the distribution system.
PSEG Long Island, a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group, serves about 1.2 million customers on Long Island.
