'Proactive' Steps Taken by JCP&L to Fix Issues, Mayor Says

This time, the actions are proactive to solve periodic power outages, rather than more lip service.

That’s the impression Washington Township Mayor Ken Short was given after meeting with Jersey Central Power & Light’s president and a later discussion with area manager Stan Prater.

Prater explained the utility provider would be undertaking three major steps, beginning this week, to help thwart future outages. The work is being done mainly in the “valley” section of Washington Township, Short said.

In July, the municipality was hit with several widespread outages, putting upwards of 1,500 homes in the dark for extended periods of time. The majority of those did occur in the southern portion of the municipality.

To start, JCP&L is conducting “spot” tree trimming along East and West Valley Brook Roads, Short said. This is in addition to two years of previous tree trimming work by the company.

Beginning the week of Aug. 12, JCP&L will be creating a loop scheme, which is a closure process that allows circuits to be connected to other circuits in case of a failure. This was done recently to the Drakestown substation, Short said, which was “looped” to the Newburgh substation. In the case of an outage or failure, the homes served by the Drakestown station would be picked up by the Newburgh Road station for restoration.

“This is definitely a more pro-active approach,” Short said. “This isn’t [JCP&L] saying they’ll do a study or look at the maps; it’s a strong step to resolve an issue.”

Short said the company made no mention of scheduled power outages during the looping procedure.

Also this summer, the company has re-fused many areas, replacing older ceramic fuses with more dependable and durable polymer apparatus. In some areas, lightning arrestors were installed, and animal guards were put on numerous poles where evidence of previous damage was done.

“This isn’t going to be a fix-all,” Short said. “We’ll still have outages, it’s a given. But this should correct a lot of problems we’ve been having.”

A substation in Tewksbury, which has been in the works for years, is scheduled to go online in the fall of 2013. Once that is available, it will take much of the burden of “valley” homes from the Chester substation, Short said.