At PSE&G, we've spent the last year making significant improvements that will help us restore service more quickly in the aftermath of the next storm: PSE&G took full advantage of the 'Sandy" storm victims stealing all they could!

Remembering Sandy and Learning Her Lessons One year ago today, Superstorm Sandy devastated New Jersey. Though we were prepared, no one predicted the immense destruction she would bring. Sandy knocked out power to more than 1.7 million of our customers and caused extensive damage to our electric and gas infrastructure. Many of our critical substations and switching stations were out of commission for the first time in their history because of the storm surge. In our service territory alone, 48,000 trees had to be trimmed or removed and 2,400 utility poles repaired or replaced. Every community in New Jersey was affected. The storm took a terrible toll. Yet it also brought out the best in New Jersey. There is a long tradition of caring in our state, and it was never more evident than in the days and weeks following Sandy. At PSE&G, we've spent the last year making significant improvements that will help us restore service more quickly in the aftermath of the next storm. We've continued rewiring our distribution system, adding lines that can carry 69,000 volts of electricity for added capacity and reliability. That new equipment is being installed on stronger poles with lightning protection and fiber optic wires that improve communication between substations. We've installed new electrical equipment in substations on concrete slabs that are higher off the ground, giving it greater protection from flood water. We've also made agreements that will ensure we have access to more help in the aftermath of a storm — working with labor to ensure access to local, skilled workers and updating our mutual aid affiliations so that we can call on workers from farther away — an important consideration when you consider the wide swath of damage storms like Sandy cause to a geographical region. We've heard your calls for better communication and made some significant changes there, too. We've ramped up our pre-storm messaging across all channels, with a focus on helping you understand what to expect from an event, how you can prepare and stay safe, and how you can best communicate with us. We launched MyAlerts, which allows our customers to opt in for text messages as well as email notifications about outages in their area and service restoration. We urge all our customers to sign up for MyAlerts and to update contact information with us now, before the next storm hits. Meanwhile, more communications upgrades are on the way. By this spring, customers will be able to report outages via text message, too. And, very soon, customers will be able to get localized outage information online and through their smart phones. Although we all hope never to see another storm like Sandy, more extreme weather is likely. We have put forth a plan to harden our infrastructure and increase resiliency so that we can withstand these new threats. Called "Energy Strong," our proposal would allow us to protect more than 40 utility installations from storm surges, strengthen distribution lines, make the electric grid smarter and thereby easier to restore customers, and modernize our gas distribution system so that it's less susceptible to water. Now is the time to make these investments. Annual bills for residential heating customers have dropped nearly 40 percent over the past four years, and thanks to our proximity to the Marcellus Shale and prudent management of our pipeline contracts, we're able to cut bills even further, with substantial credits this November and December. The continued good news for gas customers, combined with steady electric bills and transitional charges that are set to expire, is that we can make the critical investments outlined in "Energy Strong" while keeping bills stable. The people of PSE&G work hard every day to provide safe, highly reliable electric service to our customers. Sandy challenged our people and our systems like never before. While we are proud of our performance during restoration, we know our customers expect more — and we will continue to work hard to meet your expectations.