Bill Text: NJ S274 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Requires electric, gas, and water public utilities to provide certain notifications to customers concerning certain service outages.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2024-05-16 - Reported from Senate Committee with Amendments, 2nd Reading [S274 Detail]

Download: New_Jersey-2024-S274-Amended.html

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[First Reprint]

SENATE, No. 274

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

221st LEGISLATURE

 

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION

 

 

Sponsored by:

Senator  BRIAN P. STACK

District 33 (Hudson)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Requires electric, gas, and water public utilities to provide certain notifications to customers concerning certain service outages.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As reported by the Senate Economic Growth Committee on May 16, 2024, with amendments.

  

An Act requiring electric, gas, and water public utilities to ¹[disseminate information] notify certain customers¹ concerning ¹certain¹ service outages ¹[through autodialed telephone calls, text messages, and electronic mail]¹ and supplementing Title 48 of the Revised Statutes.

 

     Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

      1.  a.  An electric, gas, and water public utility, as defined in R.S.48:2-13, shall develop and implement a plan to ¹[disseminate to] notify¹ customers ¹that opt into receiving such notifications from the public utility¹, ¹[through] in a format requested by the customer, which format may include, but shall not be limited to,¹ an autodialed telephone call, text message, ¹[and] or¹ electronic mail alert service maintained by the public utility, information concerning a service outage ¹[using the customer contact information on record with the utility] that lasts for one hour or longer in duration¹. The ¹[disseminated information] information conveyed by such notifications¹ shall include, but not be limited to:

      (1)  the location and estimated length of the service outage;

      (2)  contact information for the public utility and emergency services;

      (3)  information on how to report any other service problem related to the service outage; and

      (4)  any relevant updates to address the service outage as the situation progresses.

      b.   The Office of Emergency Management, the Division of State Police, and any other appropriate State, county, or municipal entity may disseminate information made available by a public utility pursuant to subsection a. of this section.

      c.   As used in this section:

      "Autodialed telephone call" means a telephone call made using equipment that makes a series of telephone calls to stored telephone numbers using an artificial or prerecorded voice message.

     "Service outage" means any discontinuance of electric, gas, or water public utility service beyond the control of the public utility providing that service.  "Service outage" shall not include the discontinuance of service to a customer for bill nonpayment.

 

     2.    This act shall take effect ¹[immediately] 180 days after the date of enactment¹.