Jersey Central Power & Light, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., is investing in its customers by upgrading two power lines in Morris and Monmouth counties. The upgrades are scheduled to be completed in November as part of JCP&L’s New Jersey Reliability Improvement Project, an element of the company’s rate review settlement approved by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities in February.
“JCP&L is committed to the safe, reliable delivery of electricity to our 1.1 million customers in New Jersey in a cost-conscious manner. The upgrades we are undertaking as part of the Reliability Improvement Project are one of the ways we are ensuring we are meeting our customer commitments,” Doug Mokoid, FirstEnergy’s president, New Jersey, said.
The upgrades include:
- Replace existing infrastructure with thicker, stronger wires and poles that can safely carry more electricity and provide more resiliency in storms.
- Upgrading fuses and installing additional remote-access devices and reclosers, which allow power to be rerouted to adjacent lines when an outage occurs, minimizing the number of impacted customers.
- Installing TripSaver devices, which sense temporary abnormalities along power lines, such as a tree branch bouncing off lines, and automatically reenergize the line after the condition has passed without having to send a crew to investigate.
- Additional tree trimming and vegetation management along the circuits.
Equipment enhancements will take place along more than 10 miles of lines in Monmouth County and approximately 10 miles of lines in Morris County.
The Monmouth County upgrades begin at a JCP&L substation in Howell Township and continue along a line that runs to Freehold Township, serving 2,200 customers. In Morris County, 2,174 customers stand to benefit from the upgrades, which begin at a JCP&L substation in Gillette/Long Hill Township before continuing into Chatham Township.
These two lines represent the first of 18 that will receive upgrades under the New Jersey Reliability Improvement Project, a two-phase effort to enhance reliability for customers on high-priority lines selected based on historical outage data. The first phase, which includes at least $95 million in upgrades, is set to be completed over the next three years. Second-phase repairs, which are longer-duration projects, are targeted for completion by the end of 2028.
