JCP&L's 2013 Vegetation Management Work Underway
Program is Expected to Improve Reliability of Service and Reduce Tree-Related Power Outages
MORRISTOWN, N.J., Feb. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- After successfully inspecting and trimming trees along nearly 4,000 miles of lines across its system in 2012, Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) has begun work on its $24 million 2013 vegetation management program.
In January, 410 circuit miles serving Berkeley Township, and Lakewood in Ocean County; Long Branch in Monmouth County; and Parsippany and Dover in Morris County were completed. Work in February includes more than 300 miles in the following counties and municipalities:
- Hunterdon – Asbury, Bloomsbury, Flemington, Readington, Stockton
- Middlesex – Englishtown, Jamesburg, Old Bridge, Monroe, Spotswood, and Sayreville
- Monmouth – Asbury Park, Deal, Eatontown, Long Branch, Monmouth Beach, Ocean, Sea Bright, Tinton Falls and West Long Branch
- Morris – Chatham, Chester, Dover, Flanders, Kenvil, Lincoln Park, Mendham, Mine Hill, Montville, Morristown, Oak Ridge, Pompton Plains, Randolph, Riverdale, Rockaway and Succasunna
- Ocean – Brick, Lakewood
- Passaic – West Milford
- Somerset – Bernardsville, Peapack-Gladstone
- Sussex – Franklin, Hamburg, Stockholm
- Union – Berkeley Heights, New Providence, Summit
- Warren – Blairstown
"The vegetation management program is an important component of our annual investment in infrastructure to deliver reliable service to customers," said Don Lynch, JCP&L president. "The severe weather events that our region has experienced over the past few years have heightened everyone's awareness about how trees impact electric infrastructure and the potential dangerous conditions that can result when trees and power lines touch."
All vegetation management work is conducted by JCP&L's certified forestry contractors including Aspen Tree Service, Asplundh Tree Expert Company, Jaflo Inc., Lewis Tree Service Inc., and Nelson Tree Service Inc.
To help maintain safe and reliable electric service, JCP&L regularly trims trees and conducts vegetation management work along its electric distribution lines on a four year cycle. The company's certified forestry experts inspect vegetation near the lines and make every effort to prune trees in a manner that preserves the health of the tree, while also maintaining safety near electric facilities. When necessary, trees that present a danger or are diseased will be removed.
JCP&L works with municipalities to inform them of vegetation management schedules. Customers living in areas along company right-of-ways are also notified prior to work being done.
JCP&L is a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE). JCP&L serves 1.1 million 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 and Facebook at www.facebook.com/JCPandL.
Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements based on information currently available to management. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. These statements include declarations regarding management's intents, beliefs and current expectations. These statements typically contain, but are not limited to, the terms "anticipate," "potential," "expect," "believe," "estimate" and similar words. Forward-looking statements involve estimates, assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially due to: the speed and nature of increased competition in the electric utility industry, the impact of the regulatory process on the pending matters before FERC and in the various states in which we do business including, but not limited to, matters related to rates, the uncertainties of various cost recovery and cost allocation issues resulting from ATSI's realignment into PJM, economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and margins, regulatory outcomes associated with Hurricane Sandy, changing energy, capacity and commodity market prices and availability, financial derivative reforms that could increase our liquidity needs and collateral costs, the continued ability of our regulated utilities to collect transition and other costs, operation and maintenance costs being higher than anticipated, other legislative and regulatory changes, and revised environmental requirements, including possible GHG emission, water intake and coal combustion residual regulations, the potential impacts of CAIR, and any laws, rules or regulations that ultimately replace CAIR, and the effects of the EPA's MATS rules, the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of the capital expenditures that may arise in connection with any litigation, including NSR litigation or potential regulatory initiatives or rulemakings (including that such expenditures could result in our decision to deactivate or idle certain generating units), the uncertainties associated with our plans to deactivate our older unscrubbed regulated and competitive fossil units and our plans to change the operations of certain fossil plants, including the impact on vendor commitments, and the timing of those deactivations and operational changes as they relate to, among other things, the RMR arrangements and the reliability of the transmission grid, issues that could result from the NRC's review of the indications of cracking in the Davis Besse Plant shield building, adverse regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes with respect to our nuclear operations (including, but not limited to the revocation or non-renewal of necessary licenses, approvals or operating permits by the NRC or as a result of the incident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant), adverse legal decisions and outcomes related to ME's and PN's ability to recover certain transmission costs through their transmission service charge riders, the continuing availability of generating units, changes in their operational status and any related impacts on vendor commitments, replacement power costs being higher than anticipated or inadequately hedged, the ability to comply with applicable state and federal reliability standards and energy efficiency mandates, changes in customers' demand for power, including but not limited to, changes resulting from the implementation of state and federal energy efficiency mandates, the ability to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic goals, our ability to improve electric commodity margins and the impact of, among other factors, the increased cost of fuel and fuel transportation on such margins, the ability to experience growth in the Regulated Distribution and Competitive Energy Services segments, changing market conditions that could affect the measurement of liabilities and the value of assets held in our NDTs, pension trusts and other trust funds, and cause us and our subsidiaries to make additional contributions sooner, or in amounts that are larger than currently anticipated, the impact of changes to material accounting policies, the ability to access the public securities and other capital and credit markets in accordance with our financing plans, the cost of such capital and overall condition of the capital and credit markets affecting us and our subsidiaries, changes in general economic conditions affecting us and our subsidiaries, interest rates and any actions taken by credit rating agencies that could negatively affect us and our subsidiaries' access to financing, increased costs thereof, and increase requirements to post additional collateral to support outstanding commodity positions, LOCs and other financial guarantees, the state of the national and regional economy and its impact on our major industrial and commercial customers, issues concerning the soundness of domestic and foreign financial institutions and counterparties with which we do business, the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in our SEC filings, and other similar factors. The foregoing review of factors should not be construed as exhaustive. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all such factors, nor assess the impact of any such factor on FirstEnergy's business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. FirstEnergy expressly disclaims any current intention to update, except as required by law, any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.
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