As a result of an ongoing infrastructure investment campaign, Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) posted its best service reliability numbers in 13 years in 2015.
The statistics include an 18 percent reduction in the number of outages customers experienced the previous year. Last year, JCP&L customers overall averaged less than one outage for the year, with the average outage time being a little over an hour in duration.
In 2015, JCP&L spent more than $247 million on key projects to enhance customer service reliability, including constructing a $7 million transmission line at a substation in Old Bridge; completing $6 million of equipment upgrades on 94 circuits across the company’s 13 county service area; and trimming trees to maintain proper clearances along nearly 3,300 miles of power lines at a cost of approximately $24 million.
JCP&L also teamed with Brookdale Community College in Lincroft last year to successfully reinstitute its Power Systems Institute Program to train the next generation of line and substation workers. The program combines classroom learning with hands-on training. Students who successfully complete the program earn an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Electric Utility Technology.
In addition, last year JCP&L was recognized as the “Business Leadership of the Year Honoree” by the New Jersey Conference of Mayors. The award recognized the company’s continuing efforts to establish strong working relationships with mayors across its service territory.
JCP&L also continued to use several apps to more efficiently assess damage to the electrical system and dispatch crews to make repairs in the wake of major storm events. Employees in the field can use this new mobile device technology to automatically enter damage information into the company’s outage management system which helps restore the most customers to service in the shortest amount of time.
