JCP&L Completes Infrastructure Projects

Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) is celebrating the completion of 160 infrastructure projects across its 13-county service area in 2014.

The utility spent an estimated $250 million on a variety of projects designed to improve service reliability and ensure that existing systems can handle load growth in the future.  Spokesman Ron Morano says that covers a lot of ground.

"That 160 includes a number of circuit upgrades, the tree-trimming projects that we do, that includes the wire replacements, pole upgrades," Morano said.  "All of the work that we do on a continual basis to improve the reliability of our system."

Key projects included:

• A $15 million expansion of a Monmouth County substation that will provide redundancy for 170,000 customers in Red Bank and Tinton Falls
• $1.2 million in upgrades and replacements at a substation in Manalapan
• A $2 million installation of circuit breakers at a substation in Burlington County
• Almost $6 million in upgrades system-wide designed to assist with identifying outages more efficiently
• Tree-trimming along close to 3,400 miles of power lines at an estimated cost of $24 million.

Morano says all that hard work is already paying off.

"There have been significant results as a result of that work," Morano said.  "When measuring the average duration for customers who experienced an outage in 2014, we've seen a 17% improvement over 2013."

You can report an outage or check your restoration status 24/7 on JCP&L's website.