| | JANUARY 20198CIOReviewIn 2012, Superstorm Sandy hit New Jersey and PSEG hard. Tens of thousands of utility lines were downed by trees, 2,400 utility poles were damaged, thousands of gas meters were flooded and power plants saw water rise well above historic levels, forcing them to shut down. Nearly 1.7 million of our electricity customers lost power in New Jersey--for some areas, the outage stretched for days. We learned major lessons from Superstorm Sandy. In particular, we learned that the expectations of our customers have changed dramatically. They want better use of technology for communication during storms and they are less tolerant of outages, even in the face of extreme weather. More and more, customers expect interactive technology to provide faster, more accurate customer information and, where possible, specific and contextual information. Sandy also required a rethinking of what it means to have a resilient infrastructure--not only in regard to pipes, wires and facilities, but also robust information systems that monitor asset health and status in real time, support operational decisions and manage constraints at all times.At PSEG, we have responded aggressively to bring new and better information to our customers in a storm--and on blue-sky days. We also have invested in capturing real-time data in the field to accelerate the flow of information and sound decision-making across business operations with the goal of avoiding outages completely. Companies now have the opportunity to gather millions of data points per second, process them in large algorithms to identify potential problems before they occur and, in a way, fix something that hasn't occurred yet--improving the customer experience and providing the company with an opportunity to redefine the customer relationship. Enhanced Customer Communication Prior to Superstorm Sandy, PSEG had been transforming its Twitter channel to be integrated with our customer service team. During the storm, we used Twitter to disseminate information MEETING THE CHANGING NEEDS OF CUSTOMERS By Joseph Santamaria, CIO, PSEG [NYSE: PEG]
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