PSEG Pushes Back Restoration Estimates

If anything definitive can be said about PSEG's town-by-town power restoration schedules, it's that they're constantly changing.

In a span of 24 hours, Fair Lawn's customers without power have gone from 39.9 percent to 54.7 percent to 42.3 percent and the date for "full restoration" has been pushed back from midnight Sunday to midnight Monday to midnight Tuesday.

Saddle Brook has experienced similar fluctuations. The number of reported outages in the township has actually increased after each of PSEG's restoration updates and, as of the latest estimate, 35.4 percent of the town was still without power.

PSEG spokesman Paul Rosengren, who said he couldn't provide specifics on where the utility would be working in either town, confirmed that the number of outages will continue to change -- and sometimes increase -- as updates from the field come in.

"The numbers are a snap shot in time," he said. "We are having to take some circuits out (which increase outages) to do repair, so sometimes the numbers go up before they go down."    

The latest numbers, released at 11 a.m. Sunday, estimate a consistent PSEG presence in both towns for the next three days.

• Sunday, 11/4 -- 2,071 customers restored in Fair Lawn; 377 customers restored in Saddle Brook
• Monday, 11/5 -- 1,478 customers restored in Fair Lawn; 717 customers restored in Saddle Brook
• Tuesday, 11/6 -- 1,831 customers restored in Fair Lawn; 775 customers restored in Saddle Brook

If PSEG's three-day estimates are on point, nearly 97 percent of Fair Lawn and 93 percent of Saddle Brook will have power by midnight Tuesday.

The small number of residents in both towns not restored at that point belong to isolated, localized pockets where no estimate for restoration has been provided as of yet.

Fair Lawn borough officials sat in on a PSEG conference call Sunday morning, but were told nothing new except to watch the utility's website for updates and understand that all information provided is subject to change, assistant borough manager Jim Van Kruningen said.

According to PSEG's latest press release, the next restoration schedule update is due out late Sunday afternoon.

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