JCP&L outlines Energize NJ upgrades as Berkeley Heights residents press for local schedules

JCP&L external affairs representative Bob Flynn told the Berkeley Heights governing body and a packed public room that the utility’s multi‑year Energize NJ program is focused on shoring up circuits, substations and transmission lines to improve reliability.

Flynn said the company initially sought roughly $930 million for a statewide program, but the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities authorized about $212 million in the current filing. ‘‘That breaks down to roughly 86 cents per customer for an average 770‑kilowatt house,’’ Flynn said, describing the approved scope as targeted upgrades to distribution circuits and substation equipment.

Flynn and the reliability supervisor, Gil Guerrero, described upgrades that include rebuilt pole lines, new ‘‘country wire’’ for heavily vegetated circuits, loop schemes, remote switching equipment, reclosers and ‘‘trip savers’’ that limit outages caused by animals or vegetation contacts. Flynn said some of the 18 circuits singled out for reliability fixes already show dramatic improvements in outage frequency where upgrades have been completed.

Residents at the session described repeated local outages and asked for concrete, localized schedules. One resident who said he runs critical lab operations at Nokia Bell Labs warned that minute‑long interruptions can cause large equipment failures; another attendee supplied a personal outage log showing hundreds of interruptions over recent years. Several speakers asked whether Berkeley Heights is a priority location, what the in‑service timeline will be, and how the town will be notified when specific projects are scheduled.

Flynn said town‑specific plans are developed as projects near execution. ‘‘As we finalize plans for each upgrade I come into the town council or the governing body or meet with the planning board,’’ he said, promising one‑page summaries and resident outreach when assignments are confirmed. He repeated a company goal to complete much of the program by about 2027–2029.

When pressed about transparency, Flynn acknowledged the council does not routinely receive outage reports but said smart meters and real‑time data collection now let the utility pinpoint troublesome locations. ‘‘If you have an area you want us to look at, we can analyze the data and share that with you,’’ he told the council.

The presentation followed a procedural notice earlier in the meeting that the session was limited to systemwide upgrades and not individual service complaints; Flynn urged residents with specific, address‑level problems to use the company’s reliability‑engineer request process or escalate through the BPU for regulator intervention.

What’s next: Town officials asked JCP&L to deliver town‑specific schedules and outage‑trend summaries; residents asked the council to press for regular reliability reports. Flynn said the company will coordinate communications as individual circuit plans are finalized and will provide understandable one‑page updates for residents.