JCP&L ‘Throwing Band Aids’ At Outage Problem, Committee Says

Washington Township officials expressed frustration with the power outages that have been ongoing in town at a committee work session held Wednesday night.

Last Sunday afternoon, 600 houses lost power for 12 hours after two wires came down in the West Valley Brook Road area at around 2:30 p.m.

Residents in the valley area and atop Schooley’s Mountain were affected by the outage, and repair crews were dispatched to fix the problems.

By about 5 p.m., more than half of the houses were restored, but 240 remained powerless in the 90-plus-degree weather.

During maintenance on the lines, a thunderstorm rolled in at about 8 p.m., preventing crews from continuing their work. 

By midnight, all of the houses were back on the grid, but a fuse blew on the same circuit, causing full power to lack in areas until 3 a.m.

Ron Morano, Jersey Central Power & Light corporate communications representative, said it could have occurred because of multiple reasons. 

But at the meeting, there was little remorse for the utility company, which committeemen believe has been dodging the ongoing outage issue for years. 

“This is not common for New Jersey,” said Mayor Kenneth Short. “(After speaking with the company) they said, ‘Rest assured, we will have an engineering staff work on this,’ so it doesn’t happen again.”

Also, Short expanded on talks he had with the company, saying they could not specify on the exact cause, and that it was “intense heat causing the wires to fail.”

According to Short, the company said it may have taken an uncommonly long time to restore power because of the treacherous weather that rolled in Sunday night, as electric crews cannot work on live wires amidst lightning.

As he said, there will be a meeting between JCP&L and the town for lunch in two weeks to discuss the matter.

“(We need to know), is the equipment antiquated? Do the circuits need to be updated? Do they need to increase the capacity, so that with a huge demand, it won’t give out?” asked Short, amid a flurry of frustration.

Committeeman Tracy Tobin then contributed to the debate by relaying his version of the power outages.

“The situation has been ongoing for the past 10 years,” he said. “They told us they would work on solutions, but it never comes to pass…It’s just a kiss and a promise over and over again.”

Saying that the town needs a hard and fast commitment from Jersey Central, Tobin said the company has been “just throwing Band Aids at this thing.”

Already having testified twice before the company, Short indicated that he (along with the rest of the committee) recognize the priority level of this stress-filled dilemma.

He even mentioned a possible route to take involving a direct inquiry with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.

Committeeman Jim LiaBraaten provided context to the outages, saying, “This has happened five times in the last two months; and on average, once a month for all of the years I’ve been here.”

“This hasn’t just been since Sandy…(It seems like they better) come up with a way to buy my neighbors and I generators, because this is absolutely ridiculous,” he added.

LiaBraaten also said that the issue is overwhelmingly a public safety concern, because as he’s seen firsthand, the elderly cannot cope with such lengthy outages during scorching weather.

“We’ve raised interest… now I wish their interest was raised likewise,” he said.

Tobin expressed further frustration, saying, “They haven’t been able to point out what it is. Is (the equipment in) bad condition? Is it badly designed? It’s just immoral for them to continue this year after year. They’re not doing anything in the way of a permanent fix.”

JCP&L representative Morano said that certainly, there have been instances in the area, including Hurricane Sandy, for one. But regarding ongoing liability issues, he said, “We’re doing an analysis of circuits that serve the area to determine measures we can take to improve reliability.”