JCP&L official cites improving system
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
A year after severe weather cut off electrical service for days for many township residents, a JCP&L official updated the Township Committee on what’s been done to reduce outages and make quicker repairs.
John Anderson, area manager for JCP&L, said the company had gone into an aggressive tree-trimming campaign and had hired 36 new linemen in the year. Fallen trees or branches caused more than 40 percent of outages, he said.
He said JCP&L had installed computers in trucks that would help linemen reach outage sites and send them to the next-closest call when finished. Linemen from the many states in the First Energy Corp. parent company were being trained in the same system so they would be able to respond more effectively when called to work in other states in major events.
Staging sites for equipment have been set up in Flemington to cut down on lost time en route to an outage or to retrieve parts or equipment, he said. Previously workers had to go to Phillipsburg, 20 miles further west along the Delaware River. Mr. Anderson said the company had invested more than $200 million in infrastructure this year in New Jersey.
Deputy Mayor Gloria McCauley said things did improve over time last year, but it was critical JCP&L learn about and respond to live wires in the road so crews could get in to clear access. Mr. Anderson said JCP&L heard loud and clear the need to clear a road, even if a repair can’t be made immediately.
Township Emergency Management Coordinator John Sheridan said that, in his 32 years of work in the area, he had never seen such an early, damaging snowstorm as the one in October 2011. It almost cut off access to the Sourland Mountain area, he said, and “we weren’t real happy with JCP&L’s response to that.”
Communication had greatly improved, he said, to the point where, if a major thunderstorm was rolling through, he was getting text and other messages about the control center and contact information.
”We will continue to work on it until we are completely satisfied we’re not going to have a problem,” he said.
Township Administrator Anthony Ferrera said the township would develop a priority list of areas in the JCP&L territory that are most vulnerable in storms.
State Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, who is a township resident, said he was glad to hear of the improvements and reminded Mr. Anderson, “We are all accountable to our constituents.”
A critical Gov. Chris Christie set up a task force to investigate utilities’ response to last year’s storms, and it was likely a bill would be passed to set pretty severe penalties for lack of communication or not restoring power within a reasonable time, he said.
Resident David Brook, of Winding Way, asked for more detail. Had the company lost any linemen, cutting into the 36 it had hired? How much money was being invested in Hillsborough improvements?
He also renewed his call for the township to research and possibly renegotiate franchise agreements with JCP&L and PSE&G, which serve different parts of the township. The more rural, forested western part of the township is served by JCP&L, and that area suffered worse damage and more days of outages than the PSE&G territory.
He said he had been at the Feb. 28 meeting asking about the agreements, and, since then, the township or the company had been able to find the contracts, which might date back to the 1920s or ‘30s, he said. The state Board of public Utilities has been asked if it has copies, Mr. Ferrera said.
”If the utilities are operating every day without the legal permission to do so, shouldn’t Hillsborough start the process of determining if the current service territories are working to the benefit of all residents?” he said.
That could include redrawing territory lines, he said.
He called for a citizen advisory committee to help examine the issues of new agreements, territories and what benefits the township can request from both utilities in exchange for granting continued franchise agreements for electric service.
Mr. Anderson said the company had heard the cries for more communication after Hurricane Irene’s rain of late August 2011 and the Halloween weekend storm of wet, heavy snow.
He said the company had updated its website with an outage map that enables the company to give a clearer and more accurate idea of the number of powerless customers by municipality and not just ZIP code.
He said customers could get better information where a storm had hit, how long it was expected to last and the estimated time to restore service. A new phone service would connect a caller to a person or tell the caller how long it would take to have the call answered.
JCP&L has entered social media big time, he said, and customers could keep in touch with the company on Twitter and Facebook.

