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A1749 • 2026

Requires electric, gas, and water public utilities to disseminate outage information to customers through autodialed telephone call, text message, and electronic mail alert service.

Requires electric, gas, and water public utilities to disseminate outage information to customers through autodialed telephone call, text message, and electronic mail alert service.

Energy
Passed Legislature

This bill passed both chambers and reached final enrollment, even if later executive action is not shown here.

Sponsor
Verrelli, Anthony S.
Last action
2026-01-13
Official status
Introduced, Referred to Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee
Effective date
Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.

Requires electric, gas, and water public utilities to disseminate outage information to customers through autodialed telephone call, text message, and electronic mail alert service.

Requires electric, gas, and water public utilities to disseminate outage information to customers through autodialed telephone call, text message, and electronic mail alert service.

What This Bill Does

  • Requires electric, gas, and water public utilities to disseminate outage information to customers through autodialed telephone call, text message, and electronic mail alert service.
  • Topic: Telecommunications and Utilities Fiscal note: This bill has not been certified by OLS for a fiscal note.

Limits and Unknowns

  • This entry is temporarily using official source text because the generated explanation could not be confirmed against the official bill text during the last sync.

Bill History

  1. 2026-01-13 New Jersey Legislature

    Introduced, Referred to Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee

Official Summary Text

Requires electric, gas, and water public utilities to disseminate outage information to customers through autodialed telephone call, text message, and electronic mail alert service.
Topic:
Telecommunications and Utilities
Fiscal note:
This bill has not been certified by OLS for a fiscal note.

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text 
A1749

ASSEMBLY, No. 1749

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

�

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman ANTHONY S. VERRELLI

District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)

Assemblyman GABRIEL RODRIGUEZ

District 33 (Hudson)

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman Dunn

SYNOPSIS

���� Requires electric, gas, and water public utilities to
disseminate outage information to customers through autodialed telephone call,
text message, and electronic mail alert service.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

���� Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative
Counsel.

��

An Act

requiring electric, gas, and water public utilities to disseminate information
concerning service outages through autodialed telephone calls, text messages,
and electronic mail and supplementing Title 48 of the Revised Statutes
.

����
Be It
Enacted
by the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.��� a.� An electric, gas,
and water public utility, as defined in R.S.48:2-13, shall develop and
implement a plan to disseminate to customers, through an autodialed telephone
call, text message, and electronic mail alert service maintained by the public
utility, information concerning a service outage using the customer contact
information on record with the utility. The disseminated information shall
include, but not be limited to:

���� (1)� the location and
estimated length of the service outage;

���� (2) contact information for
the public utility and emergency services;

���� (3) information on how to
report any other service problem related to the service outage; and

���� (4) any relevant updates to
address the service outage as the situation progresses.

���� b.��� The Office of Emergency
Management, the Division of State Police, and any other appropriate State,
county, or municipal entity may disseminate information made available by a
public utility pursuant to subsection a. of this section.

���� c.���� As used in this
section:

���� �Autodialed telephone call�
means a telephone call made using equipment that makes a series of telephone
calls to stored telephone numbers using an artificial or prerecorded voice
message.

���� �Service outage� means any
discontinuance of electric, gas, or water public utility service beyond the
control of the public utility providing that service.� �Service outage� shall
not include the discontinuance of service to a customer for bill nonpayment.

���� 2.��� This act shall take
effect immediately.

STATEMENT

���� This bill requires an
electric, gas, and water public utility (utility) to develop and implement a
plan to disseminate information concerning service outages through an autodialed
telephone call (robocall), text message, and electronic mail alert service,
using the customer contact information on record with the utility.� The
robocall, text message, and electronic mail alert service is to be maintained
by the utility and is to disseminate information such as the location and
estimated length of the service outage, contact information for the utility and
emergency services, information on how to report any other service problem
related to the service outage, and any relevant updates as the situation to
address the service outage progresses.

���� The bill allows appropriate
State, county, and municipal entities to disseminate information made available
by the utilities through their own robocall, text message, and electronic mail
alert services.