Why Make NJ Energy Strong? Sandy, Hurricane Irene and the October 2011 snow storm represent extreme weather patterns that may become commonplace. For example, more than 30 distribution facilities, which had never previously flooded, were impacted by Sandy and/or Irene, leaving more than 800,000 people without power during Sandy. In light of these new weather patterns, the state’s entire energy infrastructure needs to be rethought.

Why Make NJ Energy Strong: Cost of Inaction is TOO High…..for businesses and families to bear. – Hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue — grocery stores, restaurants etc. -- will never be recovered. – If several switching stations hadn’t been flooded: – Newark Airport would have had the power needed to operate. – The refineries would have had the power needed to operate. – Hundreds of small businesses in Hoboken—just to name one town--wouldn’t still be trying to recover from the loss of business.

Reliability Isn’t Enough Anymore We’re proud of being named the most reliable utility in the country in 5 of the past 8 years, including And the region’s most reliable for the past 11 consecutive years. But, the extremes of weather we’re now seeing on an increasingly frequent basis eequire a new level of resiliency to natural disaster that wasn’t needed in the past. We need to “harden our systems” and make them Energy Strong.

“Energy Strong” Proposal Filed on February 20, 2013 with NJ BPU. $3.9 billion investment over 10 years to make distribution systems more resilient to natural disasters. Proposes to invest $2.6 billion in critical upgrades during the next five years including – $1.7 billion to protect the 31 switching and substations including Sewaren, Newark, Linden, Bayonne and Hoboken that were damaged by recent storms. Potential to invest an additional $1.3 billion dollars in the subsequent five years.

Energy Strong also would provide… $1.04 billion to replace and modernize 750 miles of low-pressure cast iron gas mains in or near flood areas. $454 million to deploy smart grid technologies to better monitor system operations to increase our ability to swiftly make repairs. $215 million to improve pole distribution systems. $200 million to create redundancy in the system, reducing outages when damage occurs. $140 million to protect 9 natural gas metering stations and a liquefied natural gas station affected by Sandy or located in flood zones. $60 million to move 20 miles of overhead electric distribution lines underground.

Make NJ Energy Strong We can continue “business as usual” – and just make incremental improvements and repairs to our electric and gas systems as we have always done. Or we can be truly forward-looking – And make substantial investments that will help our state be better prepared for the next Irene, Sandy or other catastrophic event. Investments in Energy Infrastructure are a differentiator for NJ. They will make NJ more economically competitive and position us for growth.

The Time is Right These investments can be made in the next 10 years while keeping residential or business customer bills essentially flat – Deregulation charges expiring in 2014 and 2016 will cover the cost of electric infrastructure investment. – Low natural gas prices and available labor make this the right time. – The costs of these investments will be spread out over the 40- to 60-year life of the assets. Economic benefits – If approved, Energy Strong will create 5,800 jobs. – Energy Strong helps support New Jersey’s economy.