Sometimes I come home to find my digital clocks blinking in a perpetual state of midnight: 12:00 - 12:00 - 12:00. Why does this happen?

There's nothing new about momentary power interruptions. They've just become more noticeable now that more consumers have electronic equipment sensitive to even a split second loss of power. More than likely, a momentary interruption is the result of a squirrel or a small branch making contact with a power line. The contact is detected by sensors, which interrupt power for less than a second to allow the short circuit to clear. If it clears, the breaker resets itself and the power stays on. The "trip and reclose" process is repeated three times to give the power line several chances to clear. If the line doesn't clear, then the circuit breaker stays open and must be reset after the line has been checked or repaired.

What is the performance credit for Rockland Electric customers in New Jersey?

Rockland Electric has a service performance program on outage restoration. In the event of a power outage caused by a malfunction in the company's local distribution system, affected customers will receive a $25 bill credit if the company fails to restore service within 24 hours. Outages caused by major storms, catastrophic events and other external causes do not qualify for the bill credit.