Bill Text: NJ S397 | 2026-2027 | Regular Session | Introduced
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) 2026-01-13 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Economic Growth Committee [S397 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2026-S397-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
222nd LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 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
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act requiring electric, gas, and water public utilities to notify certain customers concerning certain service outages 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 notify customers that opt into receiving such notifications from the public utility, in a format requested by the customer, which format may include, but shall not be limited to, an autodialed telephone call, text message, or electronic mail alert service maintained by the public utility, information concerning a service outage that lasts for one hour or longer in duration. The information conveyed by such notifications 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 180 days after the date of enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill requires an electric, gas, and water public utility (utility) to develop and implement a plan to notify customers that opt into receiving such information about service outages in duration of one hour or longer. The utility is to provide notifications in a format requested by the customer, which format may include an autodialed telephone call (robocall), text message, or electronic mail alert service maintained by the utility. The notifications are to include information such as: the location and estimated length of the service outage; contact information for the utility and emergency services; information on how to report any other service problem related to the service outage; and any relevant updates as the situation progresses. The bill also allows appropriate State, county, and municipal entities to disseminate information made available by a utility.
