Customers Getting Answers to Outage Problems from Their Utilities

The following story was written by Tom Johnson and published by our partners at NJSpotlight.com.

Jersey Central Power & Light is once again under the gun.

The state is launching a series of hearings into how well New Jersey's four electric utilities responded to power outages that left more than a million people and businesses without lights in the wake of Hurricane Irene.

The first two of the hearings, expected ever since Gov. Chris Christie criticized the performance of some utilities after the storm, will be held in Manalapan and Morris Plains. Both are served by Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L), the target of most complaints from customers who waited up to eight days to have power restored.

The hearings cast an unwelcome light on JCP&L, the state's second largest utility, with more than 1 million customers. In 2003, a slow response to a string of outages at the Jersey Shore during the Fourth of July led the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to temporarily reduce the utility's rate of return after an investigation found flaws in its performance.

The utility also was recently the subject of an extensive audit by Schumaker & Co., which recommended, among other things, that the company complete deferred tree trimming on its distribution corridors by the end of 2011.

In addition, the audit noted that the regulatory service standards reported to the BPU -- the average time to reach a customer service representative -- have all deteriorated in recent years.

Hearings Scheduled

The BPU announced Wednesday it would hold hearings on September 26 and 27. A spokesman said the first sessions will be held in JCP&L's territory, while additional meetings will focus on the other three electric utilities: Public Service Electric & Gas, (PSE&G), Atlantic City Electric and Rockland Electric.

Two-thirds of JCP&L customers lost power at some point following Hurricane Irene, which hit New Jersey early Sunday morning. By the following Friday, 27,000 customers were still without power, nearly all in the company's franchise territory.

That led to the utility being singled out by Christie as he toured New Jersey in the wake of the disaster. "The JCP&L numbers are lagging significantly behind other companies," the governor said at one point. "I want an explanation for that."

Scott Surgeoner, a spokesman for Akron-based FirstEnergy, the owner of JCP&L, said the utility was looking forward to the opportunity to participate in the hearings.

Surgeoner noted that Hurricane Irene was the first storm to make landfall in New Jersey since 1904, a fact that caused significant and widespread damage throughout its 13-county territory. He said the company had more than 4,500 utility and contractors working on restoring service, and that 70 percent of nearly 700,000 customers had service restored within 48 hours.

Continue reading this story in NJ Spotlight.

NJ Spotlight is an issue-driven news website that provides critical insight to New Jersey’s communities and businesses. It is non-partisan, independent, policy-centered and community-minded.