MORRISTOWN – Jersey Central Power & Light is planning major infrastructure projects within its 13-county service area throughout central and northern New Jersey for the 2018 year. JCP&L has allocated $357 million for these projects.
“Our infrastructure work and inspections enhance the reliability of our electric system, further minimizing the duration and frequency of service interruptions our customers might experience,” said Jim Fakult, president of JCP&L. “In 2017, on average, JCP&L customers experienced about one outage lasting less than two hours in duration, which is better than the reliability standards established by the state utility commission.”
These projects also hope to reduce the number and the duration of power outages in the areas serviced by JCP&L.
Some of the major infrastructure improvements are:
- Replacing 40 automated control units at various substations. These units can be operated remotely from a company dispatch center for $7.3 million. This equipment allows operators to restore power more quickly and efficiently.
- Enhancing security systems at seven substations for 14.3 million.
- Completing underground and overhead circuit improvements in Morris County for $10.3 million.
- Replacing 24 substation circuit breakers to automatically disconnect from the system when a problem occurs, for $6.6 million. This will help reduce the number and duration of power outages.
- Upgrading over 90 circuits for $4.7 million. JCP&L plans to add remote-control devices to automatically restore service, install animal guards on poles and in substations, install lightning arrestors to help protect the system from bad weather, and replace poles, cross arms and wire, as needed.
- Upgrading and replacing distribution oil-filled circuit breakers with newer, more efficient equipment.
- Adding new equipment to increase capacity at a substation in Ocean County
- Installing new “smart” equipment at 54 sites.
- Upgrading remote control equipment and adding new circuits to help add redundancy in Morris and Monmouth counties.
Last year, JCP&L spent approximately $308 million on certain infrastructure projects relating to both small and large transmission and distribution projects. JCP&L’s plans for 2018 include wide and varied improvements.
JCP&L is a subsidiary of FirstEnergy. For more information on JCP&L or FirstEnergy, visit firstenergycorp.com and follow on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp.
