Storm-Hardening Upgrades Funded by FEMA

Storm-hardening upgrades include stronger poles, narrower cross arms that help wires deflect falling branches, stronger wire and smart switches that minimize the number of customers affected by any one outage. Since 2014, the company has made significant investments in strengthening the electric infrastructure. Using $729 million in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), PSEG Long Island has completed storm hardening and reliability work on more than, 1,000 miles of distribution mainline circuits, 894 new smart switches installed and 26,364 poles replaced.

Continued Efforts: PowerOn 

PSEG Long Island’s current storm hardening initiative, PowerOn, builds upon work completed as part of the federally funded FEMA mitigation program by storm hardening even more of the energy infrastructure. PowerOn strengthens vulnerable electric distribution lines across Long Island and the Rockaways. Specifically, PowerOn upgrades include:

Stronger Poles
Since Superstorm Sandy, using federal funding, we've replaced 24,800 poles with stronger poles capable of withstanding winds up to 135 mph and storm hardened more than 1,000 miles of electric infrastructure

Smart Switches
Over the last 5 years, PSEG Long Island installed 887 automatic switching units (ASUs), or smart switches, to minimize the number of customers who are affected when equipment fails. The units reroute power around the failed equipment, isolating the immediate area where the damage occurred, bringing the lights back on for the surrounding customers. Learn more

Narrow Profiles
You might see a new type of cross arm atop some of our poles. To help deflect falling limbs, instead of cradling them, PSEG Long Island installed shorter cross arms on top of some of our poles