PSEG LI behind on 44% of performance standards, LIPA report says

PSEG Long Island is again lagging in performance standards that tie its annual bonus payment to "meaningful results for ratepayers," reporting it is "behind target" or "at risk" of missing 44% of the metrics, including those tied to customer satisfaction, outages and call center answer times.

PSEG for the past two years has fully met 70% of the performance metrics, cutting its annual bonus compensation by millions of dollars even as LIPA has reduced the number of metrics. Former LIPA chief Tom Falcone rated PSEG’s performance a "D-plus" during a public hearing last year.

The latest findings were disclosed in a midyear report by grid owner LIPA at its monthly trustees meeting Wednesday. Compared with past meetings' fiery exchanges over metrics, LIPA's board Wednesday offered little criticism of the report's conclusions.

Asked why he didn’t challenge the results during the presentation, LIPA’s acting chief executive John Rhodes, in a brief interview after the meeting, said, "I don’t pose those questions in these board meetings."

As of midyear 2024, PSEG was "at risk" of missing performance metrics for the average length of customer outages, the frequency of outages, the number of momentary outages and a plan to reduce "sustained multiple outages," according to the report. Jessica Bretana, LIPA’s senior manager of performance management, said weather played a role in many of the shortfalls, some of which are expected to improve by year's end.

PSEG also was "behind target" for the serious injury rate for employees, and at risk of missing the metric for improving reliability through tree removal. PSEG has since stepped up the tree removal program.

Dave Lyons, the acting chief operating officer of PSEG Long Island, in an interview after the meeting, characterized the metrics as "stretch targets," some of which are "back-end loaded," and thus achievable by year's end. "The year’s not over yet," he said.

Among the findings was that 3,199 of LIPA’s 1.1 million customers experienced six or more outages during the period, well above a target of 2,275, with one customer experiencing 12 outages. "Thus, in 2024, PSEG Long Island is meeting 0% for each of the targets for each of the four identified groups of customers" in the metric, according to a report.

In a measure of momentary outages of less than five minutes, 70,321 customers experienced six or more during the one-year period included in the metric, about 6.1% of all LIPA customers, and an increase of 20,000 since the end of 2023, the report said.

PSEG is behind the target for the serious injury rate because there were two incidents during the first half of the year in which employees were admitted to the hospital.

PSEG is also behind target for its score on JD Power’s residential customer satisfaction survey, ranking 11th out of 17 among large Eastern utilities, compared with a year-end goal of becoming the fifth-ranked utility. Bretana noted there are two more JD Power surveys through year end, so results could improve.

Also at risk was the average time to answer a customer call, which through the end of June was 459 seconds, compared with a target of 376 seconds. LIPA trustees during a separate presentation pressed PSEG on the performance, and officials said the addition of 45 new call center agents could help improve it.

PSEG is meeting its target for customer adoption of heat pumps and its above target for a category known as "beneficial electrification."

PSEG is "behind target" for a long-term project to separate LIPA computer systems from PSEG’s New Jersey home base, completing only 30% of the targeted transition against a goal of 100% completion. Lyons told trustees the project will be complete by the end of 2025 — right around the time PSEG’s contract with LIPA expires.

LIPA had prioritized the system separation project to bring more operations under local control, particularly in case the utility decides to award the grid-management contract to a company other than PSEG, after a series of PSEG failures following Tropical Storm Isaias. Newsday has reported the project has been dogged by delays and cost overruns.

LIPA in 2024 had reduced the number of performance targets to 61 from the prior year’s 93. David Manning, a trustee appointed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, at a board meeting earlier this year suggested reducing the number of metrics even further.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.