A Message from President & CEO Carl A. Taylor to our Customers

Last week's spring storm broke records across New York, and not all of them are ones I wanted to see broken. More than 14 inches of wet snow fell in Binghamton — the most ever for a two-day April snowstorm. NYSEG is always prepared for New York’s wild and unpredictable weather patterns, including snow in late April. Unfortunately, the impacts of this storm were severe. Heavy, wet snow downed trees and branches, took down more than 2,200 wires, damaged 30 transmission lines and broke over 210 poles across our service areas. All told, more than 150,000 customers were impacted by outages.

Crews were here and ready on Monday and immediately began responding as soon as the storm came through, clearing roads and hazards that posed a danger to the public and hampered travel in the area. Restoration began with our company and crews committed to restoring service as quickly and safely as humanly possible. Many repairs were in difficult off-road locations where equipment had to be brought in on foot. We continued to request and onboard more line and tree crews, damage assessors and wire guards throughout the restoration. There were more than 3,000 field personnel activated to support these efforts.

I would like to personally apologize to every customer who was impacted by the outages from last week’s storm. Whether you lost power for a few minutes or many days, I know how dependent we all are on our electric service and the impact that a power outage can have on your life. My own power was out from 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday until 5:30 a.m. on Friday, and it was very disruptive. I would like to thank you for the kind words and encouragement that many shared with us on social media or through signs in your windows or chalk art on your street. Thank you to Zoey and Skylar from Girl Scout Troop 40430 for dropping off cookies to the crews working in Binghamton. Thank you to the municipalities and communities, New York State, elected officials and first responders who worked with us to support our customers and their constituents. Most importantly, we thank you – our customer – for your patience and support as we worked to restore power and build back stronger from this event.

While some additional clean-up will remain in days ahead, please know that we continue to work to mitigate the impact of the more frequently occurring storms. We’re making significant investments in our infrastructure, along with investments to make the system more resilient against storms. We’re also increasing our investments in tree care, as more than half of all outages are attributable to trees and branches coming into contact with electric equipment.

On behalf of the entire NYSEG team, we look forward to continuing to serve you and your family.

Sincerely,

Carl A. Taylor
President and CEO, NYSEG