PSE&G Seeks Federal OK to Expand Its Gas and Power Grids

Public Service Electric & Gas is looking to upgrade its system for delivering electricity to customers, saying it will ask a federal agency to approve $1.5 billion worth of new transmission projects.

In an annual investors’ conference call with Wall Street analysts held last week in New York, the state’s largest utility detailed that it will invest much of its capital in its gas and electric power grids. The strategy will drive most of the huge energy company’s profits over the next three years, rising to more than half of the parent company’s earnings. It will eclipse its unregulated power subsidiary, which only a few years ago accounted for more than 70 percent of the company’s bottom line.

The investments in the transmission grid come on top of other filings the utility has made to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, including a $3.9 billion spending plan filed last month to make its distribution system, which delivers electricity and gas to homeowners and businesses, more resilient in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The utility also is seeking approval to spend $883 million to promote the development of solar systems in the state.

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