By John Tredrea, Special Writer
Several Hopewell Township (Mercer County) residents — still smarting over going without power for days after Hurricane Irene and a freak snowstorm in late October — are asking Hopewell Township officials to try to switch their electric service from Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) to another service provider.
The residents made the request Jan. 24 at an information session run by JCP&L and held in the auditorium of Hopewell Valley Central High School, on Pennington-Titusville Road.
They heard John Anderson — of JCP&L and a Hunterdon County resident who also lost power for several days due to Irene and the snowstorm — explain what his company faced during and after these storms.
He also said his company is working to improve communication to customers during outages.
There is a Storm Web Page now, with regular updates and a Twitter feed, he said. “We have daily conference calls with mayors” during outages, he said. He said JCP&L also brings in extra personnel from affiliate companies to help with communications during outages. JCP&L is one of the 10 firms in the First Energy Company, he noted.
”We understand your frustration and disappointment over going without power for days,” said Mr. Anderson, who is a JCP&L area manager. His territory, in addition to western sections of Hopewell Township, also includes Lambertville, Stockton and West Amwell areas.
Statistics discussed by Mr. Anderson gave an idea of what the power company was up against due to the hurricane and snowstorm. “We have 480,000 customers in central Jersey,” he said. “Three hundred and twenty thousand of them were affected by Irene; 380,000 were affected by the snowstorm, the most by far I’ve seen in 20 years with the company. There was massive damage and a massive restoration effort.”
Irene knocked out seven substations, he said, while 47 miles of wire had to be replaced, along with 360 utility poles, 400 cross arms atop those poles and 300 transformers.
The snowstorm was much worse. Twenty-two substations were knocked out, and needing replacement were 170 miles of wire, 612 poles, 2,400 cross arms and 300 transformers.
Mr. Anderson said: “We have to prioritize our restoration.” The substations are worked on first, then main feeder lines, then hospitals, then residential areas.
”It’s important to understand that if we don’t get here for several days, it’s due to our dealing with damage ‘upstream’ of your problem. That damage has to be taken care of before we can get power to you. Irene and the snowstorm stressed our resources a great deal,” said Mr. Anderson.
Richard King, an engineering supervisor at JCP&L, said the company “is working diligently to improve service.” He said all equipment is on a regular inspection schedule. He noted that, during the hurricane and snowstorm, 56 percent of the power outages was caused by damage done by trees; 11 percent due to line failure; 11 percent due to ice; and 22 percent due to equipment failure.
Comments made at the Hopewell Township meeting included:
”There’s no substitute for acceptable service, and we’re not getting it,” a man declared. “I’m asking that the Township Committee have the township transferred to a reliable service provider.” His comment drew vigorous applause from the audience.
A township woman asked that a switch be made from JCP&L to Public Service Electric & Gas (PSE&G), which already provides service to parts of the township. (JCP&L serves the Titusville area and other parts of the western township area).
A particular point of frustration for Hopewell Township residents was the difficulty they had getting information from JCP&L on when their power might be restored after it had been knocked out by Irene and the October snowstorm.
Ruth Luse, managing editor, contributed to this account.

