MORRISTOWN, N.J., Dec. 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Jersey Central
Power & Light (JCP&L) has completed upgrades on more than
80 major circuits this year to enhance customer
reliability. Overall, the modernization work will help
reduce the number and duration of service interruptions for more
than 113,000 customers in central and northern New Jersey.
Among the projects completed was an upgrade of equipment in the
area known as the Great Swamp in Chatham Borough. The work
required installing planking to allow workers to safely access the
poles and wires while protecting the natural vegetation.
After gaining access, crews installed modern polymer insulators,
replaced wooden cross arms with fiberglass arms, along with
inspecting other equipment.
The circuit enhancement work is part of JCP&L's plan to
invest $387 million on infrastructure
projects in 2016.
"Circuit upgrades serve an important role in enhancing service
to customers," said Tony Hurley,
vice president of Operations for JCP&L. "As we prepare
for the upcoming winter season, the work that has been completed
will help prevent or reduce the duration of service interruptions
to customers."
The upgrade work included installing more resilient fuses,
animal guards and lightning protection devices; enhanced tree
trimming efforts; replacing wooden cross arms at the top of utility
poles; and installing fault indicators that help pinpoint problem
areas, helping to speed the restoration process if an outage
occurs. In addition, automated equipment was added to the
distribution system that allows JCP&L to automatically detect
the location of faults and quickly restore the vast majority of
customer served by the line while other repairs are made.
Over the past several months circuit upgrades were completed in
the following counties and municipalities:
- Essex– Livingston Township and
Millburn Township
- Hunterdon – Alexandria Township, Bethlehem Township,
Bloomsbury Borough, Clinton Township, East Amwell Township, Frenchtown Borough, Holland Township, Kingwood Township, Lebanon Township, Raritan Township, Readington Township, and Tewksbury Township
- Monmouth – Borough of
Fair Haven, Borough of
Farmingdale, Freehold Borough, Howell Township, Borough of Keansburg, Borough of Little Silver, Middletown Township, Borough of Neptune City, Neptune Township, Ocean Township, Borough of Red Bank, Borough of Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury Township, Upper Freehold Township and Wall Township
- Morris – Borough of
Chatham, Chatham Township, Borough of Chester, Chester
Township, Denville
Township, Florham Park
Borough, Jefferson
Township, Kinnelon Borough,
Mendham Township, Morris Township, Town of Morristown, Mount Arlington Borough, Borough of
Mountain Lakes, Parsippany-Troy
Hills Township, Township of Randolph, Borough of Riverdale, Rockaway
Township, Roxbury Township
and Washington Township
- Ocean – Barnegat Township, Borough of Beachwood, Berkeley
Township, Brick Township,
Lacey Township, Lakewood Township, Manchester Township, Borough of Ocean Gate, Plumsted
Township and Toms River
Township
- Passaic – Borough of
Ringwood, Borough of Wanaque and Township of West Milford
- Somerset County – Bedminster Township and Branchburg Township
- Sussex County – Fredon Township, Green Township, Hampton Township, Borough of Ogdensburg, Sparta
Township, Vernon Township
and Walpack Township
- Union County – Borough of
Mountainside, Borough of
New Providence, Springfield Township and City of Summit
- Warren – Blairstown Township, Harmony Township, Hope Township, Independence Township, Knowlton Township,
Lopatcong Township, Mansfield Township and White Township
JCP&L is a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE).
JCP&L serves 1.1 million New
Jersey customers in the counties of Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union
and Warren. Follow JCP&L on
Twitter @JCP_L, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JCPandL, or online
at www.jcp-l.com.
Editor's Note: Photos of JCP&L work performed in
Chatham Borough are available for
download on Flickr.
Forward-Looking Statements: This news
release includes forward-looking statements based on information
currently available to management. Such statements are subject to
certain risks and uncertainties. These statements include
declarations regarding management's intents, beliefs and current
expectations. These statements typically contain, but are not
limited to, the terms "anticipate," "potential," "expect,"
"forecast," "target," "will," "intend," "believe," "project,"
"estimate," "plan" and similar words. Forward-looking statements
involve estimates, assumptions, known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results,
performance or achievements to be materially different from any
future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by
such forward-looking statements, which may include the following:
the speed and nature of increased competition in the electric
utility industry, in general, and the retail sales market in
particular; the ability to experience growth in the Regulated
Distribution and Regulated Transmission segments; the
accomplishment of our regulatory and operational goals in
connection with our transmission investment plan, including, but
not limited to, the proposed transmission asset transfer to
Mid-Atlantic Interstate Transmission, LLC, and the effectiveness of
our strategy to reflect a more regulated business profile; changes
in assumptions regarding economic conditions within our
territories, assessment of the reliability of our transmission
system, or the availability of capital or other resources
supporting identified transmission investment opportunities; the
impact of the regulatory process and resulting outcomes on the
matters at the federal level and in the various states in which we
do business including, but not limited to, matters related to rates
and the Electric Security Plan IV; the impact of the federal
regulatory process on Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC)-regulated entities and transactions, in particular FERC
regulation of wholesale energy and capacity markets, including PJM
Interconnection, L.L.C. (PJM) markets and FERC-jurisdictional
wholesale transactions; FERC regulation of cost-of-service rates,
including FERC Opinion No. 531's revised Return on Equity
methodology for FERC-jurisdictional wholesale generation and
transmission utility service; and FERC's compliance and enforcement
activity, including compliance and enforcement activity related to
North American Electric Reliability Corporation's mandatory
reliability standards; the uncertainties of various cost recovery
and cost allocation issues resulting from American Transmission
Systems, Incorporated's realignment into PJM; economic or weather
conditions affecting future sales and margins such as a polar
vortex or other significant weather events, and all associated
regulatory events or actions; changing energy, capacity and
commodity market prices including, but not limited to, coal,
natural gas and oil prices, and their availability and impact on
margins and asset valuations, including without limitation
impairments thereon; the risks and uncertainties at the Competitive
Energy Services (CES) segment, including FirstEnergy Solutions
Corp. and its subsidiaries and FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating
Company, related to continued depressed wholesale energy and
capacity markets, and the viability and/or success of strategic
business alternatives, such as potential CES generating unit asset
sales, the potential conversion of the remaining generation fleet
from competitive operations to a regulated or regulated-like
construct or the potential need to deactivate additional generating
units; the continued ability of our regulated utilities to recover
their costs; costs being higher than anticipated and the success of
our policies to control costs and to mitigate low energy, capacity
and market prices; other legislative and regulatory changes, and
revised environmental requirements, including, but not limited to,
the effects of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's
Clean Power Plan, Coal Combustion Residuals regulations,
Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and Mercury and Air Toxics Standards
programs, including our estimated costs of compliance, Clean Water
Act (CWA) waste water effluent limitations for power plants, and
CWA 316(b) water intake regulation; the uncertainty of the timing
and amounts of the capital expenditures that may arise in
connection with any litigation, including New Source Review
litigation, or potential regulatory initiatives or rulemakings
(including that such initiatives or rulemakings could result in our
decision to deactivate or idle certain generating units); the
uncertainties associated with the deactivation of older regulated
and competitive units, including the impact on vendor commitments,
such as long-term fuel and transportation agreements, and as it
relates to the reliability of the transmission grid, the timing
thereof; the impact of other future changes to the operational
status or availability of our generating units and any capacity
performance charges associated with unit unavailability; adverse
regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes with respect to our
nuclear operations (including, but not limited to, the revocation
or non-renewal of necessary licenses, approvals or operating
permits by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or as a result of the
incident at Japan's Fukushima
Daiichi Nuclear Plant); issues arising from the indications of
cracking in the shield building at Davis-Besse; the risks and
uncertainties associated with litigation, arbitration, mediation
and like proceedings, including, but not limited to, any such
proceedings related to vendor commitments, such as long-term fuel
and transportation agreements; the impact of labor disruptions by
our unionized workforce; replacement power costs being higher than
anticipated or not fully hedged; the ability to comply with
applicable state and federal reliability standards and energy
efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates; changes in
customers' demand for power, including, but not limited to, changes
resulting from the implementation of state and federal energy
efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates; the ability to
accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic and
financial goals, including, but not limited to, the ability to
continue to reduce costs and to successfully execute our financial
plans designed to improve our credit metrics and strengthen our
balance sheet through, among other actions, our cash flow
improvement plan and other proposed capital raising initiatives;
our ability to improve electric commodity margins and the impact
of, among other factors, the increased cost of fuel and fuel
transportation on such margins; changing market conditions that
could affect the measurement of certain liabilities and the value
of assets held in our Nuclear Decommissioning Trusts, pension
trusts and other trust funds, and cause us and/or our subsidiaries
to make additional contributions sooner, or in amounts that are
larger than currently anticipated; the impact of changes to
significant accounting policies; the ability to access the public
securities and other capital and credit markets in accordance with
our financial plans, the cost of such capital and overall condition
of the capital and credit markets affecting us and our
subsidiaries; further actions that may be taken by credit rating
agencies that could negatively affect us and/or our subsidiaries'
access to financing, increase the costs thereof, increase
requirements to post additional collateral to support, or
accelerate payments under outstanding commodity positions, letters
of credit and other financial guarantees, and the impact of these
events on the financial condition and liquidity of FirstEnergy
and/or its subsidiaries, specifically the subsidiaries within the
CES segment; the risks and uncertainties surrounding FirstEnergy's
need to obtain waivers from its bank group under FirstEnergy's
credit facilities caused by a debt to total capitalization ratio in
excess of 65% resulting from impairment charges or other events at
CES; changes in national and regional economic conditions affecting
us, our subsidiaries and/or our major industrial and commercial
customers, and other counterparties with which we do business,
including fuel suppliers; the impact of any changes in tax laws or
regulations or adverse tax audit results or rulings; issues
concerning the stability of domestic and foreign financial
institutions and counterparties with which we do business; the
risks associated with cyber-attacks and other disruptions to our
information technology system that may compromise our generation,
transmission and/or distribution services and data security
breaches of sensitive data, intellectual property and proprietary
or personally identifiable information regarding our business,
employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, business partners
and other individuals in our data centers and on our networks; and
the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in our
United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, and
other similar factors. A security rating is not a recommendation to
buy or hold securities and is subject to revision or withdrawal at
any time by the assigning rating agency. Each rating should be
evaluated independently of any other rating. The foregoing factors
should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in
conjunction with the other cautionary statements and risks that are
included in our filings with the SEC, including but not limited to
the most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and any subsequent
Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. New factors emerge from time to
time, and it is not possible for management to predict all such
factors, nor assess the impact of any such factor on our business
or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may
cause results to differ materially from those contained in any
forward-looking statements. FirstEnergy expressly disclaims any
current intention to update, except as required by law, any
forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise.
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SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.