This bill mandates that the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) establish standards for emergency preparation and service restoration for investor-owned electric public utilities in the state. These standards are designed to align with national best practices and will be enforced through penalties for non-compliance, with fines set at $10,000 per day for each violation, capped at $1 million for related violations. The BPU is empowered to investigate any alleged failures to meet these standards, either on its own initiative or upon request from the Governor, county commissioners, or affected municipalities.

Additionally, the bill requires each investor-owned electric public utility to submit an emergency response plan to the BPU by May 15 each year. This plan must detail the utility's procedures for restoring service during widespread outages and include specific elements such as management responsibilities, communication strategies, and safety measures. Utilities that fail to file their plans on time may incur fines of $1,000 per day until compliance is achieved. Any fines collected will be deposited into a non-lapsing account to fund grants for municipalities affected by outages, aimed at maintaining public rights of way near utility infrastructure.