Reduces electric corporations' response time for securing downed wires to one hour upon notice; provides that corporations failing to do so shall be subject to a fine in an amount to be determined by the department of public service.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
9980
IN SENATE
April 20, 2026
___________
Introduced by Sen. SKOUFIS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Energy and Telecommuni-
cations
AN ACT to amend the public service law, in relation to reducing the
response time for securing downed wires to one hour upon notice
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subparagraph (xi) of paragraph (a) of subdivision 21 of
2 section 66 of the public service law, as separately amended by chapter
3 743 of the laws of 2022 and chapter 38 of the laws of 2024, is amended
4 to read as follows:
5 (xi) appropriate safety precautions regarding electrical hazards,
6 including plans to physically respond to and promptly secure downed
7 wires within [thirty-six hours] one hour of notification of the location
8 of such downed wires from a municipal emergency [official] responder;
9 § 2. Paragraph (c) of subdivision 21 of section 66 of the public
10 service law, as added by section 4 of part X of chapter 57 of the laws
11 of 2013, is amended to read as follows:
12 (c) The commission is authorized to open an investigation to review
13 the performance of any corporation in restoring service or otherwise
14 meeting the requirements of the emergency response plan during an emer-
15 gency event. If, after evidentiary hearings or other investigatory
16 proceedings, the commission finds that the corporation failed to reason-
17 ably implement its emergency response plan or the length of such corpo-
18 ration's outages were materially longer than they would have been,
19 because of such corporation's failure to reasonably implement its emer-
20 gency response plan, the corporation shall be subject to a fine in an
21 amount to be determined by the department pursuant to subdivision two of
22 section twenty-five of this chapter, and the commission may deny the
23 recovery of any part of the service restoration costs caused by such
24 failure, commensurate with the degree and impact of the service outage;
25 provided, however, that nothing herein limits the commission's authority
26 to otherwise commence a proceeding pursuant to sections twenty-four,
27 twenty-five and twenty-five-a of this chapter.
28 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD15259-01-6
