Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight
Jersey Central Power & Light has agreed to sharply scale back a nearly $400-million rate increase, under a tentative settlement with state regulators. The rate increase is intended to fund investments aimed at reducing outages caused by severe weather events.
The settlement with the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel and staff of the state Board of Public Utilities would allow the utility to spend $97 million to upgrade its distribution system and make it more resilient during storms.
The state’s second-largest utility proposed a four-year, $387 million infrastructure investment program in July 2018, mostly geared to curbing the number and duration of power outages its 1.1 million customers experience.
JCP&L repeatedly has come under fire for extended power outages that occur within its service territory of 13 counties by customers, local officials and state regulators. Its proposed four-year program mirrored large investments that have been proposed by other utilities, all of which are under pressure from regulators to improve the resiliency of their power grids.
“We are pleased with the settlement,’’ said Jennifer Young, a spokeswoman for FirstEnergy Corp., the Akron-based company and owner of JCP&L. Noting the utility originally proposed a four-year program, Young said the settlement narrows the scope to an 18-month period.
