Power outages in Newstead
I’m in SO too and rarely experience outages but have noticed so many reports lately, typically when they are doing work someplace close. Hopefully they will figure it out and this constant stuff will stop.
I’m sorry you’re experiencing this.
Judging by the days the Annex was closed when my kids were attending there, Newstead is much more prone to outages than the rest of SO. Not quite sure why that is, perhaps it position higher on the Mountain means it suffers from greater wind exposure?
There have been a total of four outages in Newstead since the beginning of the year. As far as I know, the most recent outage, which occurred last week, is the only outage that just effected Newstead. Last week, a dead tree was leaning against the power lines at a house on Glenview, and in order for the tree company to remove it, PSE&G had to turn of the power in 26 houses.
The outage before that (January 30) was because of a fire at the substation at Ridgewood and Third. This outage was more widespread than just Newstead. (This was the third outage of the year.)
There was an outage on Jan. 24 which was fairly widespread.
The first outage of the year occurred on Jan. 20 and it was pretty widespread.
eta - kdwilltravel, welcome to the neighborhood. If you haven't already done so, I suggest that you sign-up on Nextdoor Newstead. It's a great source of information about matters like this - it's been pretty active during the power outages.
Thanks Cramer, this is reassuring in the sense that there are good reasons for the January power outages and that this is not a regular occurrence. Unfortunate that the PSEG rep was not forthcoming with the reasons for the outages.Thanks for the welcome and I will sign up on Nextdoor Newstead for updates.
kdwilltravel - I learned from Sheena Collum that the 26 houses effected by the power shutdown were supposed to have received robocalls from PSE&G alerting them of the shutdown. I told Sheena that I didn't receive a call and from asking on Nextdoor it seems that most people didn't receive a call. Sheena said that she would discuss this at the next meeting with the new PSE&G regional representative.
from my many years there... there’s a single vulnerable feed that runs up the hill to Newstead through woods, backyards, etc. pseg needs to add a 2nd feed, but has resisted. No longer my fight, but all of you there ought to show up at BOT meeting. And heck, recruit Ms Davis Ford tomthus cause, since her home is impacted by this!
peteglider said:
from my many years there... there’s a single vulnerable feed that runs up the hill to Newstead through woods, backyards, etc. pseg needs to add a 2nd feed, but has resisted. No longer my fight, but all of you there ought to show up at BOT meeting. And heck, recruit Ms Davis Ford tomthus cause, since her home is impacted by this!
I think it would make more sense to complain to your legislator --- (Codey, McKeon and Jasey) since PSE&G reports to the NJ BPU which reports to the NJ legislature. or do both (trustees and state legislators). Not sure it is worth the time to attend a meeting but certainly easy enough to send a letter or email.
I live above Wyoming and we are plagued with outages. When there are town wide outages, we are the last to get the lights back on. After 16 days without power after Sandy, I caved and bought an automatic generator. Costly but with temps down to 50 in the house post Sandy and the fear of a summer storm leaving me without AC, I feel secure now. Check with PSE&G that your gas lines can handle it before you chose one.
kdwilltravel said:
Hi we recently moved from Maplewood to South Orange and in the past 1 month we have had more power outages than we experienced altogether in our 14 years in Maplewood (Ok a slight over estimation but 4 in 1 month!). Calling PSEG was frustrating- we were asked why didn't we report an outage and to get a cooler bag to keep our son's medicine. They had no good reasons for why there are frequent outages. Most of our neighbors have generators and clearly we will have to get one but is it just me thinking that this level of service is unacceptable from PSEG? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this as I search for a 2 hour window on my calendar to call back PSEG.
I am so sorry for your experience and welcome to South Orange! This is not typical. We have our fair share of outages like the rest of the state particularly when bad weather occurs. One of the benefits we have (aesthetically) in South Orange is having power lines in the back of our yards. It makes our streets beautiful not to have wires everywhere. The downside, is that they are more susceptible to trees during high wind events and when there are mass outages in the region, South Orange typically is one of the last ones to come back online due to a basic triage system where PSE&G works to get as many people online as possible. Due to the nature of them having to access our back yards, it typically takes more time.
I have a meeting coming up with our new representative from PSE&G and this is a high priority for discussion as well as notifications to residents. I also received the after action report on the sheer volume of outages that occurred (again, this is not the norm) posted below. Please hang in there - Newstead is amazing and hopefully these occurrences haven't made you regret your move ;-)
South Orange Outage Description 2019
1/20/2019 @ 6:20pm- 881 Customers impacted for 2 hours 17 minute total duration. Circuit was lost during high wind event however, the source of the outage was not identified. All impacted customers were restored by 8:37pm.
1/24/2019 @ 6:49am- 926 Customers impacted for 3 hours 51 minute total duration. Circuit was lost due to a manhole cable failure and OH cable failures (tree/ vegetation contact) Circuit damaged on Harding Drive & Hoskier Rd. All impacted customers were restored by 10:40pm.
1/30/2019 @ 6:12am- 881 Customers impacted for 3 hours 17 minute total duration. Circuit was lost due to a manhole explosion on West 3rd St. PSE&G replaced and repaired damaged cables and other facilities prior to cutting the customers back into service. All impacted customers were restored by 10:40pm.
2/6/2019 @ 11:20am-24 Customers impacted for a 2 hour 16 minute total duration. Crews were made aware about tree limbs/vegetation in danger of tripping out the SO 4002 circuit. PSE&G proactively took the circuit out of service, to clear the vegetation and remove the emergent danger. All impacted customers were restored by 1:36pm.
ETA - during these outages I typically remain in contact with PSE&G and obviously our OEM. You can reach out to me any time at scollum@southorange.org.
Sheena Collum
Village President
Hi we recently moved from Maplewood to South Orange and in the past 1 month we have had more power outages than we experienced altogether in our 14 years in Maplewood (Ok a slight over estimation but 4 in 1 month!). Calling PSEG was frustrating- we were asked why didn't we report an outage and to get a cooler bag to keep our son's medicine. They had no good reasons for why there are frequent outages. Most of our neighbors have generators and clearly we will have to get one but is it just me thinking that this level of service is unacceptable from PSEG? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this as I search for a 2 hour window on my calendar to call back PSEG.