MORGANTOWN – The state Public Service Commission has issued a new order requiring all public utilities to have customer notification plans in place for planned and unplanned outages.
The PSC issued a similar order last October, but this one adds an element based on a bill – HB 3263 – signed into law in April.
The PSC’s outage notification effort began in April 2024 and led to creation of a task force in May 2024 to recommend best practices and universal procedures for notifications of outages.
The task force’s work led to the October order requiring utilities to have in place a process to notify customers of planned and unplanned outages by text and email, and to request updated contact information from the customers.
HB 3263 went into effect on Thursday and expands slightly on the prior order by including regulated motor carriers.
The new order says each utility’s communication plan must include a methodology for advance notification to all affected customers for planned service disruptions, methods of communication, and notification content requirements concerning the outage, including an estimate of the duration and end of the outage.
Each utility must file a plan with the PSC within 30 days of the order, which was issued Wednesday.
