Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L), is set to expand smart grid technology across its northern and central New Jersey service territory following approval from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) for its EnergizeNJ infrastructure investment program (IIP).

In accordance with a BPU-approved agreement, JCP&L will invest more than $202.5 million over a three and a half year period starting July 1 to upgrade the company’s neighborhood electric distribution grid with an increase in automated and remotely controlled devices.

Doug Mokoid, FirstEnergy’s President, New Jersey: “JCP&L is committed to making smart, responsible investments in our infrastructure that enhance the reliability our customers expect and deserve as well as the safety of our crews in the field. EnergizeNJ will allow us to reduce the length and number of customers affected by outage events and protect our line workers who are on the front lines of restoring power.”

The EnergizeNJ program includes:

• More than $20.4 million in a Grid Modernization initiative that will replace solid fuses along power lines with TripSaver II devices, which can sense temporary abnormalities along power lines, such as a tree branch contacting power lines, and automatically reenergize the line after the condition has passed, as well as remotely controlled devices that allow for faster isolation of damage.
• A System Resiliency program that will invest more than $128.9 million to optimize circuits (or groups of power lines) for added operational flexibility and reliability, install remotely controlled circuit ties that can move customers to neighboring circuits during outage events and modernize devices along power lines.
• Substation Modernization programs designed to upgrade protection relays in substations and install newer, more modern devices that will provide enhanced data on physical substation equipment to operators at JCP&L’s control centers.

JCP&L will make additional investments of at least $132 million in matching projects during the program period. These upgrades include more than $18 million to replace vital components at coastal substations susceptible to the effects of salt and nearly $9 million for new mobile substations, which can be moved throughout JCP&L’s territory to allow for necessary maintenance or in emergency outage situations.

To further minimize the impact of these upgrades on customer bills, JCP&L will only charge for work as it is completed, resulting in five incremental bill impacts over the life of the program. The total bill impact for a typical JCP&L residential customer, using 777 kWh per month and currently paying $136.37, will be $0.86, or 0.6% per month. As part of the settlement, JCP&L will seek potential federal funding under the Federal Infrastructure and Jobs Act of 2021. Any federal funds awarded to the company will be credited back to customers to offset bill impacts.

EnergizeNJ is part of Energize365, a multi-year grid evolution program focused on transmission and distribution investments that will deliver the power FirstEnergy’s customers depend on today while also meeting the challenges of tomorrow. With planned investments of $28 billion between 2025 and 2029, the program is creating a smarter, more secure grid that will meet and exceed reliability targets and accommodate electric vehicles, the electrification of homes and businesses and clean energy sources.

JCP&L serves 1.1 million customers in the counties of Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren.

[Press Release]