Requires each utility to take appropriate safety precautions regarding electrical hazards, including developing plans to promptly de-energize downed wires within two hours of notification of the location of such downed wires from a municipal emergency responder and promptly secure such wires within six hours in the case of events that are not considered emergencies.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
9980--A
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 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as
amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the public service law, in relation to reducing the
response time for securing downed wires
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 66 of the public service law is amended by adding
2 a new subdivision 21-a to read as follows:
3 21-a. Require each utility to take appropriate safety precautions
4 regarding electrical hazards, including developing plans to prompt-
5 ly de-energize downed wires within two hours of notification of the
6 location of such downed wires from a municipal emergency responder and
7 promptly secure such wires within six hours in the case of events that
8 are not considered emergencies pursuant to subdivision twenty-one of
9 this section. Such plans developed by a utility pursuant to this section
10 shall identify communication procedures to notify emergency responders
11 of expected time frames for securing wires.
12 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
13 it shall have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD15259-03-6
