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. 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 freeholders, 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 outline procedures for restoring service during widespread outages and include details such as management responsibilities, communication strategies, and safety measures for employees. Utilities that fail to submit their plans on time will incur a fine of $1,000 per day until compliance is achieved. 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.