NEWARK, N.J., Aug. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G) Company, New Jersey's largest electric and gas utility, is closely monitoring the track of Hurricane Irene and is making emergency preparations should the storm bring heavy rain and strong winds to our service territory. At this time, the storm is expected to begin impacting New Jersey as early as Saturday night and sweep up the coast toward New England by early Monday morning.

In anticipation of Hurricane Irene, PSE&G has all available personnel ready to respond. The utility is also ensuring that additional supplies, such as poles and pole-top equipment, are on hand to promptly respond and restore service should the storm result in outages.

Clearly, a storm like Hurricane Irene has the potential to interrupt service. High winds might cause trees to brush up against power lines, and lightning could strike and damage trees or pole-top equipment. There also is the potential for trees to be uprooted given the recent heavy rains.

Depending on the severity of the storm, response times for both electric and gas emergency services may be longer than usual. PSE&G asks for our customers' patience and cooperation as we work to safely restore service as quickly as possible.

To report downed wires or power outages, customers should call PSE&G's Customer Service line at 1-800-436-PSEG. PSE&G uses an automated system to handle customer calls as efficiently as possible. Customers who get an automated response when calling PSE&G are encouraged to use it, as it is designed to route their calls to the right destination quickly. The system also provides the option to speak directly to a customer service representative. If you have specific information regarding damage to wires, transformers or poles, we ask that you speak with a representative to provide that information.

Customers with a handheld device, or who are at an alternate location with power, can also report power outages and view the status of their outage by logging in to My Account at pseg.com. General outage activity throughout our service territory is available online at [ www.pseg.com/outagecenter ] and updates are posted on pseg.com during severe weather.

In addition, if outages are widespread, the utility will activate its Twitter page to keep the public informed about our restoration progress. Sign up as a follower at [ http://twitter.com/psegoutageinfo ] to monitor restoration progress.

Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) is New Jersey's oldest and largest regulated gas and electric delivery utility, serving nearly three-quarters of the state's population. PSE&G is the winner of the ReliabilityOne Award for superior electric system reliability. PSE&G is a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PSEG) (NYSE: [ PEG ]), a diversified energy company ([ www.pseg.com ])

Want to know what's new at PSEG? Go to [ www.pseg.com/getnews ] and sign up to have our press releases sent right to your inbox.

SOURCE Public Service Electric & Gas Company (PSE&G)

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PSE&G Prepares for Hurricane Irene

PSE&G Prepares for Hurricane Irene

Additional crews and equipment on hand to restore service