PSEG Long Island: ‘Significant progress’ restoring power

PSEG Long Island on Friday evening reported about 810 customers remained without power as a result of this week’s snowstorm, and said it expects to have remaining customers back to service by Saturday’s end.

Crews working round the clock have made “significant progress restoring [power to] the remaining customers impacted by the nor’easter,” the utility said in a statement.

More than 91,000 customers lost power during the Wednesday storm, which blanketed the region with wet, heavy snow that knocked down trees and limbs, and took down power lines and utility poles.

The final days of a restoration effort can be the most difficult, with complex work conditions requiring extra time to restore power to fewer and fewer customers. The so-called “singles” can be “more labor intensive,” spokeswoman Brooke Houston said.

PSEG Friday continued to call in extra crews to get power restored. There were already 230 tree-trimming crews from out of state, and another 57 were on the way Friday.

One problem with getting crews from local utilities, including PSEG sister company PSE&G of New Jersey, is that many regional utilities are working overtime to restore their own sizable power outages.

Wednesday’s nor’easter was the second large storm PSEG responded to in under a week’s time. One week ago, another nor’easter bearing strong winds and rain knocked out power to more than 128,000 Long Island customers.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.