Trees and Power Lines Don't Mix

If you live on Long Island, you probably agree the beauty of our area is tied to our beautiful, lush trees. As part of our commitment to providing safe and reliable service, we have improved and expanded our vegetation management program to reduce outages while preserving the health of our trees.

• Tree branches can interfere with electric lines and cause power outages.
• Trees and tree limbs can tear down power lines during storms.
• Trees also can extend the length of an outage related to underground utility lines if they interfere with access to equipment.
• People who climb trees near power lines can be exposed to electrocution hazards.

 
Our Tree Maintenance Plan

We are currently working to create a larger buffer between power lines and nearby trees to eliminate more potential outage threats. Once all we have implemented this plan across our service area, we will continue to trim trees on a four-year cycle. Some outage-prone areas may be trimmed sooner. How is the plan working so far? Great! Since we implemented this plan in 2014:

• Overall system storm performance has significantly improved.
• The number of customers affected by tree-related outages in areas where we have trimmed trees has been reduced by 33%.

 
Trimming in Your Neighborhood or on Your Property

We recognize that seeing more trees being pruned on Long Island may cause some uncertainty. That's why we're committed to keeping our customers and elected officials informed before and during the tree trimming process. Here's how we do that:

• We meet with elected officials in towns and villages before tree trimming begins.
• We send letters and emails to customers two to three weeks before tree trimming begins in their neighborhoods, letting them know when work is scheduled. The notification includes the Vegetation Management Manager’s name and the PSEG Long Island Customer number.
• A door hanger is placed on each affected customer’s door, typically, two to three days before we start work in each neighborhood.
• We have a legal right to enter private property to trim or pick up debris. As a courtesy, our crews first knock on the front door. To maintain our crews' schedules and productivity, we cannot schedule appointments in advance. If a customer expresses concerns, our crews make every effort to address them.