Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L), a FirstEnergy Company, is investing $108 million through 2028 to bolster the electric grid in rapidly growing Ocean County.
The company is making updates to the power system to make it more dependable, fix outages more quickly and provide enough electricity to keep pace with the county’s surging energy demands.
Ocean County has seen its population increase by nearly 30,000 residents from 2020-2024, according to the U.S. Census estimates. In the past year, county businesses and developers have applied to JCP&L for more than 50 megawatts (MW) of new connections — enough to power approximately 50,000 homes.
An initial $21 million in upgrades will be completed in Ocean County this year. Work includes adding two new transformers and upgrading an existing transformer at a local substation to provide more electricity for the area.
Some of the new electricity will power new homes and businesses. If there’s a power outage, the increased power will also help JCP&L get customers’ electricity back on more quickly by switching them to another line while the problem is fixed.
“Ocean County is growing at a pace that traditional forecasting formulas can’t keep up with,” said Doug Mokoid, president of FirstEnergy, New Jersey. “We’re taking a fresh approach to improving reliability now and meeting power demand for years to come.”
Along with adding more power, JCP&L is upgrading power lines to make them stronger, especially during bad weather. Area projects include:
- Lakewood: Replacing more than 3 miles of lines on South Hope Chapel Road, Brook Road and Ocean Avenue with new, larger wire and adding extra underground wires in the Leisure Village community.
- Jackson: Upgrading to larger wire along South Hope Chapel Road and Brewers Bridge Road and adding a new line near Six Flags Great Adventure. This will help JCP&L quickly reroute power around trouble areas during an outage and reduce the number of customers affected. New devices will also be installed that can automatically transfer customers in the northeastern portion of town to unaffected lines during an outage.
- Toms River: Relocating existing equipment north of Route 37 to safer locations, helping prevent outages and allow faster repairs. Installation of devices that can automatically switch service to another line if there’s a problem will make power more reliable for customers in the Leisure Village area, the southwestern portion of town, Manchester and Lakehurst.
JCP&L will also invest an additional $29 million in Ocean County from 2026 to 2028 as part of its New Jersey Reliability Improvement Project, a two-phase effort to enhance the reliability of lines with a history of outages. These investments will include thicker, stronger wires and poles, plus additional protective and automatic transfer devices in Lakehurst, Manchester, Berkeley and Lacey townships.
Another $58 million in Ocean County upgrades are planned through 2028 as part of EnergizeNJ, JCP&L’s three-and-a-half-year infrastructure investment program. Approved by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) in April 2025, EnergizeNJ supports system resiliency and grid and substation modernization. Planned work includes:
- Adding new power lines to reduce the number of customers affected by outages
- Installing more than 200 new “TripSaver” devices that can automatically restore power caused by temporary conditions (such as tree branches bouncing off lines)
- Adding more automatic transfer devices
- Modernizing substation equipment
- Replacing substation equipment at coastal substations susceptible to salt
JCP&L’s New Jersey Reliability Improvement Project and EnergizeNJ are part of Energize365, FirstEnergy’s long-term investment program to modernize the electric grid. FirstEnergy plans to invest $28 billion through Energize365 between 2025 and 2029. The goal is a smarter, more secure grid that meets the needs of today’s customers and tomorrow’s growth.
