JCP&L Establishes Estimated Restoration Times

Expects all Outages from First Winter Storm Restored by Late Saturday

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Mar 09, 2018, 02:09 ET

MORRISTOWN, N.J., March 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- An additional 400 utility workers will arrive today to help Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) restore service to all customers by late tomorrow night who have been without power since the first winter storm struck northern New Jersey.

JCP&L has more than 5,000 people dedicated to restoring service to customers as well as addressing safety hazards and road closures from the recent storm that dumped up to an additional 25 inches of snow in portions of JCP&L's service area. Crews continue to make progress, and this morning the company established an estimated time of restoration of 11:30 p.m., Saturday, March 10, for customers in northern New Jersey who remain out of service from the first storm. Customers impacted by the second storm are expected to be restored as follows:

Central New Jersey: 11:30 p.m., Sunday, March 11
Northern New Jersey: 11:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 14

Crews are restoring customers around the clock and many people in the affected areas will get their power back sooner. The full restoration estimates also reflect the thousands of single outages that require crews to travel to each individual location to restore service.

As of Friday morning, approximately 10,000 customers remain without power from the original event and every effort is being made to restore these customers. JCP&L has already restored service to about 385,000 customers, with approximately 80,000 remaining without power across northern and central New Jersey.

"JCP&L was prepared to respond to these storms and took decisive steps to deploy resources in areas we expected to be hardest hit," said Jim Fakult, president of JCP&L. "The goal of our pre-planning efforts was to speed the restoration process and help ensure the safety of our workers and the public. However, both storms in the past week truly lived up to the hype, causing tremendous damage to our electric system and very challenging work conditions for our crews. We're very proud of their efforts and will continue to provide every available resource they need to get the job done safely."

JCP&L will continue to post storm updates on social media and on the company website. Follow JCP&L on Twitter @JCP_L, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JCPandL or online at www.jcp-l.com. Water and ice is also still available for JCP&L customers currently without power. For distribution locations, visit firstenergycorp.com/outages_help/storm_info/water-ice.html.

JCP&L reminds customers to immediately report downed wires to their utility at 888-LIGHTSS (888-544-4877), or to their local police or fire department. Customers should never go near a downed wire even if they think it is no longer carrying electricity. Extra caution should be used in areas where downed lines are tangled in trees or other debris.

JCP&L will continue to post storm updates on social media and on the company website. Follow JCP&L on Twitter @JCP_L, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JCPandL or online at www.jcp-l.com.

After local power lines are repaired and put back in service, damage to individual customer service wires may become apparent. Customers are reminded that if their neighbor's power is on and theirs is not, the problem may be isolated to their individual service, and service to the neighbor could be fed from a different circuit. Customers are encouraged to report such problems, even at this latter stage in the restoration process.

JCP&L is a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE). JCP&L serves 1.1 million New Jersey customers in the counties of Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren. Follow JCP&L on Twitter @JCP_L, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JCPandL or online at www.jcp-l.com.

FirstEnergy is dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. The company's transmission subsidiaries operate more than 24,000 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Visit FirstEnergy online at www.firstenergycorp.com and follow on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp.

For current outage updates, text STAT to 544487 or visit our outage map: http://spr.ly/NJOutageMap

We thank you all for your grit and support of our crews during what we know is a very challenging time. More to come throughout the day. Stay safe!

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.