Video Credit: NBC New York
I am a wife and mother of two daughters and live in Livingston, New Jersey. On May 15, I had a traumatic experience that changed my life. With some luck – and most importantly, the help of a stranger – my story has a happy ending. Continue reading
Recently, Stevens Institute of Technology and PSEG held a reception at Liberty Science Center to celebrate our longstanding partnership and PSEG’s underwriting of Stevens’ innovative SURE House. Late last year, the PSEG Foundation awarded a new $1.5 million grant to further strengthen academic excellence at the university and take our partnership to a new level. Continue reading
Since Sept. 11, 2001, many men and women have volunteered to join the U.S. military. In fact, today’s armed services are composed of all volunteers, unlike the past when there was a universal draft.
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Summer is here! Memorial Day Weekend (we hope yours was great!) marks the official start of beaches and boardwalks, picnics and barbeques, outdoor concerts and cool drinks on balconies.
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When powerful storms such as Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy caused widespread power outages – in some parts of New Jersey lasting for more than a week – critical customers such as hospitals and public works were particularly vulnerable.
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It was a cold, spring day (in a spring with too many cold, spring days) when nearly 100 Newark students converged on PSEG’s corporate headquarters. They learned about teamwork and in-demand jobs in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), heard from PSEG employees about their own career paths, and met and interacted with students from other Newark high schools. It was a great day for the students but also for more than two dozen PSEG volunteers who spent the day at the Jr. Achievement Career Success workshop. Continue reading
A few weeks ago, I had the honor of standing with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Councilman Joe McCallum and other officials at an event at PSE&G’s new Fairmount Heights electrical switching station in the city’s West Ward. Although I have attended numerous dedications to celebrate completion of energy infrastructure over the years, this one was a unique opportunity for me – and PSE&G — on a number of fronts.
First and foremost, we had gathered to unveil more than a dozen specially crafted works of art installed on the protective wall that surrounds this new station. The “art wall” is a 30-foot-high canvas for 14 internationally accomplished artists – about half from Newark – whose works now beautify a single square block. The station’s unique promenade also invites people to visit and experience the artwork – turning the site into a destination for the community, city and beyond.
But when a hundred or so people gathered on that April morning, we collectively celebrated more than completion of the art wall, and the modern switches, breakers and transformers that lay beyond it. We joined with the community to celebrate the partners and partnerships that have made this project possible.
We hailed the success of a local hiring program. With the help of our contractors, we met our commitment to ensure that at least 30 percent of the work hours would be performed by local residents – including females, people of color and those living in the West Ward. As a result of their employment, two workers secured their union books; two were able to buy their first homes; three people were trained in construction site management, and yet another – fully trained in construction safety – has been tapped for other projects.
In addition to jobs, we also celebrated the more than $12 million that has been put into the local economy through local contracts and spending on everything from food vendors and hardware stores to local trucking companies. The project was managed by a local, minority-owned architectural and construction management firm.
As Mayor Baraka and others noted, the Fairmount Heights switching station enabled us to put a check mark in multiple “win” columns – jobs, supplier spend, community benefits and, of course, electric system reliability and resiliency.
For PSE&G, being a strong community partner is nothing new. It’s in our DNA to do more than merely maintain the pipes and wires that provide homes and businesses with safe, reliable electricity and gas. We donate to charitable causes, encourage employees to volunteer, and support local economies.
PSE&G serves 300 municipalities – including eight of the state’s 10 largest cities by population. Collectively, these eight urban centers are home to about 1.2 million people who depend on our cities to be the kind of places in which they want to live, work and raise a family.
I believe we can – and should – do more to strengthen our cities and help them solve some of the challenges they face.
It starts with asking local leaders and officials, “How can we be helpful? What kind of mutually beneficial partnership can we develop?”
I expect the answers will be focused on how we might hire local talent to help construct energy infrastructure, or procure more products from local vendors. Perhaps it’s working with educators to support STEM programs that are preparing our future energy workforce. Maybe the focus is on how a city might attract a large, Internet-based corporation to locate there. Or it could be as straightforward as having one of our energy efficiency experts audit a municipal building and recommend ways to save energy and money.
The ideas will undoubtedly be as different at the cities themselves. But the end game should be a partnership that advances sustainable growth, supports community development and fosters corporate citizenship – all while supporting PSE&G’s efforts to maintain and upgrade its infrastructure, like we did in Newark’s West Ward.
Effective partnerships don’t come easy – nor do they happen overnight. Although PSE&G employees engage with municipal leaders all the time, we are in the early stages of creating an urban plan or model that will further guide our conversations and drive a thoughtful approach to solving issues.
I personally look forward to meeting with municipal officials during the coming months to find new ways to engage people and communities, strengthening PSE&G’s ability to live up to our founder’s credo for the company he named Public Service – “to make New Jersey a better place to live and to work.”
After years of being a PSE&G customer, I found myself paying much more attention to my bill this month – and I really like the new design. Not only is it bigger and easier to read, but all the information I need most is right on the front page.
I’m a busy person and I don’t have a lot of time to waste. After working in banking for 25 years, I knew I needed a change when my daughter asked to spend more time with me. That was all the motivation I needed to start my own business. I value my family time and don’t want it interrupted, so I expect professionalism and ease from the companies with whom I do business.
The new bill is making me pay much more attention to the useful tools that PSE&G offers but that I didn’t know about. Now, I plan to start using them. For instance, the outage center and text alerts about outages will be extremely helpful to me when the next storm comes.
Also, I like the fact that the snapshot of what I owe and how much energy I’m using is right on the first page. That will help me better manage my usage. It makes me more conscientious of how much energy I’m using and serves as a reminder to turn off the lights when I leave the room. I’ll be honest, I probably haven’t been to PSE&G’s website in the past 10 years. But the new bill made me want to go there and when I did, I found information that can save me money, like the tips from the Save Energy & Money tab of www.pseg.com.
Another thing that popped out to me on the new bill is the Message Center. I look forward to glancing at it monthly to find more valuable and pertinent information.
All and all, I’m glad PSE&G is thinking of new ways to make me feel more valued as a customer. Sometimes companies that have been around so long take you for granted, but I feel like PSE&G is continually working to earn my business.
Thanks PSE&G for keeping my family’s needs in mind, for making it easier for us to save money and for keeping our lights on!
Haven’t seen the new bill yet? Check it out for yourself.
To learn more about the redesigned bill, visit https://www.pseg.com/home/customer_service/bill/understanding_bill.jsp.
A look inside the Hope Creek cooling tower.
Pennsville is a quiet South Jersey town in rural Salem County, just a stone’s throw from the foot of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. On any given morning, a healthy stream of customers frequent area gas stations and convenience stores to fill their vehicles with gas and themselves with coffee. From here, many of these men and women set off for the 20 or so miles to PSEG Nuclear’s Salem and Hope Creek Generating Stations.
On most normal mornings, traffic is brisk heading to the plant. However, when one of the stations conducts a refueling outage, traffic swells exponentially.
All nuclear power plants have planned shut downs for maintenance and refueling. Nuclear energy facilities are unique among other power plants in their need to refuel just once every 18 to 24 months. These events tend to occur in the spring and fall when electricity demand is at its lowest.
This spring, Hope Creek is conducting its 21st refueling outage. It is a special time for Hope Creek because it is the first time in its 32-year operating history that the station has completed a “breaker-to-breaker” run. This means the station has been providing electricity nonstop since its last outage 18 months ago. As a result of that continuous operation, Hope Creek set a new generation record in 2017, when it produced 10.6 million megawatt-hours of electricity.
Refueling outages are all about teamwork. Before an outage even begins, an orchestrated assortment of activities takes place, typically beginning with tasks like erecting scaffolds, pre-staging equipment and hours of administrative work, including processing hundreds of additional personnel.
One of the critical activities at the start of an outage is the choreographed exercise of safely taking the plant offline. A refueling outage is more than simply flicking a switch. Highly-trained Nuclear Operations Professionals work methodically as a team to safely remove the station from the regional power grid. Then the team focuses on performing tasks to ensure the reactor is cooled down and remains cooled down during the duration of the outage.
Hope Creek Reactor Cavity Work Platform being installed.
In addition to replacing a third of the reactor’s secure, on-site fuel, the list of Hope Creek outage projects includes tests and inspections, maintenance activities and millions of dollars worth of capital equipment upgrades to help improve reliability and continued safe operations.
Engineering’s Bob Montgomery (front) and Matt Murray inspecting the tower bypass line for repair options.
These refueling outage cycles signify more than just the replenishment of the materials and servicing of the equipment that enable Salem and Hope Creek to supply 40 percent of New Jersey’s electricity and produce more than 90 percent of New Jersey’s carbon-free electricity.
While Salem and Hope Creek employ 1,600 people, a refueling outage also means an additional 1,000 jobs for a several-week period. This is a boom to the local economy as these workers spend their money locally on housing, restaurants and other goods and services throughout the Salem County area.
With farms dotting its landscape, it’s often said that Salem County is the garden spot of the Garden State. But for local residents and the entire community, it’s the hustle and bustle of the nuclear plants’ refueling outages that help drive the local economy.
The DiMarco family has owned the Italian Kitchen near the plants for more than 30 years, and the outages are good for business.
“It’s our busy season and we get workers coming and going at the shift changes for both breakfast and dinner,” Gino DiMarco said. “It’s a lot of hungry mouths to feed so we love when it’s refueling outage season!”
Within a few short weeks, the refueling outage will be over and Hope Creek will return to service. Another refueling outage is scheduled for Salem Unit 2 in the fall.
Pea Patch Island was, in the beginning, a mostly forgotten mound in the middle of the Delaware River. Through the earliest years of American history, the island was so small and unassuming that neither New Jersey nor Delaware were concerned with which state claimed ownership.
But that all changed two centuries ago, right after the War of 1812, when the island became a focal point for our young nation’s security. Construction lasted many years, but the result was Fort Delaware, a pentagon-shaped fortification that, along with Fort Mott in Pennsville, New Jersey, and Fort DuPont in Delaware City, Delaware, established a three-pronged defense of Philadelphia and its critically important harbor from enemy ships.
The attack on Philadelphia never came, however. So during the Civil War, Fort Delaware was put to more productive use as a Union POW camp for 32,000 captured Confederate soldiers. Once the War Between the States was over, the fort remained active but quiet through World Wars I and II. It wasn’t until the mid-20th century that Fort Delaware began its new life as a historical site and tourist attraction.
On April 27, Delaware state officials formally dedicated Fort Delaware’s newly installed solar array – made possible through the state’s longstanding partnership with PSEG and the company’s donation of 700 solar panels.
Fort Delaware’s story is one of shifting identities. Here at PSEG, we know all about that.
For most of our 115-year history, Public Service was a traditional poles-and-wires company, providing customers with electricity that was generated using fossil fuels.
PSEG has donated 700 solar panels to power Fort Delaware State Park, replacing an old diesel generator damaged during Superstorm Sandy with a new, renewable source of year-round electricity. The new solar installation was dedicated during a ceremony in Delaware City, Delaware, on April 27, 2018.
But today, PSEG has earned a national reputation and a new identity as a leader in clean energy. We have invested nearly $2 billion in solar energy – including PSEG Solar Source, which has developed 23 utility-scale solar farms in 14 states (including the largest solar farm in Delaware), and Solar 4 All, an award-winning program that builds solar energy facilities on old landfills and brownfields, putting these forgotten spaces back to productive use.
PSEG’s donated solar panels were installed with the help of state and federal grants. The new solar installation replaces the island’s previous source of electricity – an old diesel generator that was damaged during Superstorm Sandy – and will provide the state park with approximately $20,000 worth of clean energy per year.
In previous seasons, the generator burned 180 barrels of diesel fuel per year to power the state park. The drums of fuel were brought to the island by boat – which was not only inefficient, but also presented both environmental and safety concerns.
By converting to solar energy, Fort Delaware State Park now has access to clean, efficient and more affordable power year-round, enabling heat, lights, security cameras and dehumidifiers to run throughout the winter months.
The result is a win for the environment and a win for the people of Delaware.
At PSEG, we’re proud of our clean energy leadership. That’s also true in our home state of New Jersey, where we not only are the leading developer of solar energy but also, as the operators of the Salem and Hope Creek nuclear plants, the state’s leading generator of carbon-free electricity.
And we’re working closely with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to pursue the state’s clean energy goals – including initiatives to expand energy efficiency, promote the use of electric vehicles and contribute to the development of offshore wind resources.
PSEG has enjoyed a long-lasting public-private partnership with the state of Delaware. We’re excited to continue that partnership and support the sustainability of Fort Delaware by merging Civil War history with 21st-century science to provide safe, clean and efficient solar power that also helps the state reduce its carbon footprint.