Sponsored by:
Assemblyman HERB CONAWAY, JR.
District 7 (Burlington)
Assemblyman ANTHONY S. VERRELLI
District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)
Assemblyman KEVIN J. ROONEY
District 40 (Bergen, Essex, Morris and Passaic)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman Dunn
SYNOPSIS
Requires electric, gas, and water public utilities to disseminate outage information to customers through autodialed telephone call, text message, and electronic mail alert service.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act requiring electric, gas, and water public utilities to disseminate information concerning service outages through autodialed telephone calls, text messages, and electronic mail 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 disseminate to customers, through an autodialed telephone call, text message, and electronic mail alert service maintained by the public utility, information concerning a service outage using the customer contact information on record with the utility. The disseminated information 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 immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires an electric, gas, and water public utility (utility) to develop and implement a plan to disseminate information concerning service outages through an autodialed telephone call (robocall), text message, and electronic mail alert service, using the customer contact information on record with the utility. The robocall, text message, and electronic mail alert service is to be maintained by the utility and is to disseminate 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 to address the service outage progresses.
The bill allows appropriate State, county, and municipal entities to disseminate information made available by the utilities through their own robocall, text message, and electronic mail alert services.