With so many of us working from home during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, you may have noticed that our PSE&G crews are among those workers who continue to carry out essential work across New Jersey.
The spring storms that ripped across New Jersey last Monday and this past Tuesday provided a powerful reminder of just how important their work is – especially at a time when our homes have become workplaces and schoolrooms. I am so proud of the work our team accomplished in restoring more than 50,000 of our customers in a 24-hour period on the day of the first storm and some 15,000 – mostly in the southern portion of the state – affected by this week’s storm.
But storm response is not the only essential work we do. Our ongoing work also involves critical projects designed to make our electric and gas systems even safer and more reliable and resilient. It’s worth noting, as the photos nearby demonstrate, that our crews – and those of the third party contractors who support our projects – are working within federal and state guidelines governing safe work practices to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
These measures include observing safe physical distancing while work is carried out, limiting the size of crews, placing strict limits on the sharing of equipment, tools and machinery, and implementing stringent hygiene and sanitization procedures. We are providing all employees with face coverings and gloves, and have separated our workforce into smaller teams and also established a number of remote reporting locations to reduce the number of employees who are together in one place.
In addition, we have suspended all non-essential work in customers’ homes, and we are only entering customer premises to address service emergencies or to effect essential repairs. When we do find it necessary to enter a customer’s home or business, we work under screening protocols that carefully assess the risk so that our employee can determine the precise personal protective equipment that will be needed to do the work safely. This helps ensure the health and safety of both our customers and our employees, which is our first priority.
As we continue our work, we are committed to ensuring that our workers and contractors continue to adhere to these practices to help ensure their safety and the safety of our customers.
You can help, too. We ask customers and members of the public to remain a safe distance from any of our crews you may encounter so that they do their essential work safely. We appreciate your support as we work to make New Jersey an even better place to live and work.
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