Dive Brief:
- The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has launched a broad inquiry into how Jersey Central Power & Light conducts its operations and finances.
- NJ Spotlight reports regulators asked staff to report back at the BPU's next meeting in May, and that the investigation could potentially lead to an audit of the utility.
- Plagued by outages, JCP&L said this year it would spend $267 million to enhance its electric distribution system.
Dive Insight:
JCP&L, a FirstEnergy subsidiary with 1.1 million customers in New Jersey, has been in the spotlight of late.
State regulators' inquiry into JCP&L appears fairly broad, with NJ Spotlight pointing out that it will look at customer service, finance and general operations. And the investigation follows on a rate case earlier this year, where regulators determined the utility was earning more than allowed and reduced revenues by $115 million, which led to a small reduction in customer bills.
All this is against a backdrop of reliability issues: At times, some customer outages have stretched into weeks.
Earlier this year JCP&L said it would spend $267 million to enhance its system and meet future load in the 13-county service territory. Among significant projects scheduled for this year are: completion of a new transmission line in Middlesex County; the expansion of a substation in Hunterdon County; and upgrades to a substation in Morris County.
JCP&L also scheduled enhancements for 94 circuits, including the installation of remote-controlled equipment to reduce the duration of outages.