UNIONDALE, N.Y., March 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- PSEG Long Island announced today it received the Tree Line USA Award for 2014 by the National Arbor Day Foundation. This award recognizes public and private utilities across the nation utilizing tree-friendly practices that protect and enhance America's urban forests, while providing an increased reliability of service. In 2014, as a direct result of its move to the industry best practice clearance standard, PSEG Long Island reduced the number of vegetation-related outages by more than 80 percent on circuits that were trimmed in 2014.

"PSEG Long Island's tree-trimming program is improving the reliability of electric service for our customers across the entire service territory, while remaining respectful of the role that trees play in the beauty of Long Island," said John O'Connell, PSEG Long Island vice president of transmission and distribution operations. "We are honored to receive national recognition for our vegetation management program, as the award acknowledges our ongoing efforts to provide safe and reliable electric service, along with our commitment of being a good steward for the environment."

The PSEG Long Island vegetation management program adheres to a four-year tree trimming cycle and its arborists and tree-trimming contractors trim tree branches away from electric lines to ensure a safe, reliable and consistent power supply. This effort dramatically limits damage from severe storms, lowers future line clearance costs and reduces peak energy demand. It also provides a zone of safety in which line workers can do their jobs, especially during storm events when restoration work is done under hazardous conditions.

In 2014, PSEG Long Island trimmed and pruned more than 2,000 miles of distribution and transmission electric lines to industry best practices clearance standards. The environmentally-sound techniques utilized by PSEG Long Island are in accordance with the International Society of Arboriculture's published best practices and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) A-300 Standards for Tree Care Operations. This preserves the health of the tree and directs future growth away from power lines.

The Tree Line USA program is made possible through the Arbor Day Foundation, in cooperation with the National Associate of State Foresters. The National Arbor Day Foundation is a nonprofit conservation and education organization dedicated to tree planting and environmental stewardship. To learn more about the National Arbor Day foundation, please visit www.arborday.org.

For more information on PSEG Long Island's tree trimming program, visit our website at https://www.psegliny.com/page.cfm/Home/Safety/TreeTrimming.

PSEG Long Island operates the Long Island Power Authority's transmission and distribution system under a 12-year contract.  PSEG Long Island is a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (NYSE:PEG), a publicly traded diversified energy company with annual revenues of $11 billion.

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SOURCE PSEG Long Island