Jersey Central Power & Light Reaches Settlement for Program to Enhance Reliability and Harden Electric System

Enhancements Expected to Reduce Sustained Outages

News provided by

Apr 23, 2019, 16:42 ET

MORRISTOWN, N.J., April 23, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) announced today it has reached a settlement with the staff of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU), the NJ Division of Rate Counsel and the New Jersey Large Energy Users Coalition (NJLEUC) for its JCP&L Reliability Plus Infrastructure Investment Program.

JCP&L Reliability Plus builds on service reliability enhancements made by JCP&L in recent years with an additional $97 million in targeted investments aimed at addressing tree damage to the distribution system caused by severe weather events and reducing the frequency and duration of power outages. The work would be completed between June 1, 2019, and December 31, 2020.

The program was created following an analysis of JCP&L's existing distribution system as well as lessons learned from restoration efforts following recent severe weather events. It includes investments beyond what is normally spent to enhance JCP&L's service reliability, including more than 1,400 projects to help enhance the reliability and resiliency of overhead distribution lines, replace existing equipment with new smart technology devices, and expand the vegetation management program to address tree-related outages. Once the projects are complete, JCP&L expects that customers will experience fewer sustained outages under normal conditions as well as a reduction in outage duration.

"We have taken great care to ensure that JCP&L Reliability Plus focuses on the enhancements that have the most reliability benefit for our more than one million New Jersey customers," said Jim Fakult, president of JCP&L. "The enhancements implemented through this program will help reduce the frequency of power outages, address tree damage during severe weather events, provide more flexibility for operating the system and help modernize our electric grid in New Jersey."

The cost of JCP&L Reliability Plus will be recovered under a new rate provision included as part of the distribution charge on a customer's bill. Over the course of the program, the average JCP&L residential customer using 768 kilowatt hours per month is expected to see a 0.5 percent overall rate increase, which equates to a monthly increase of about 50 cents.

Key JCP&L Reliability Plus projects include:

Overhead circuit hardening and reliability – installing new electronic fuses to reduce the duration of outages caused by temporary obstructions; removal of overhanging limbs near JCP&L power lines and equipment in identified areas.
Distribution automation – installing technology that can automatically detect damage on the system, safely isolate it and quickly restore the majority of customers served on a line, reducing the number of customers out of service until repairs are made; adding additional communications equipment to aid real-time monitoring of the distribution system to promote more rapid service restoration.
Substation reliability enhancement – installing flood mitigation measures and enhanced equipment to harden substations, making them less susceptible to storm damage; adding a mobile substation that may be transported to an outage location to help restore customers more rapidly while permanent repairs are made.

JCP&L, a FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) subsidiary, 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 24,500 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp or online at www.firstenergycorp.com.

Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 based on information currently available. Unless the context requires otherwise, as used herein, references to "we," "us," "our," and "FirstEnergy" refer to FirstEnergy Corp. Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. These statements include declarations regarding management's intents, beliefs and current expectations, and typically contain, but are not limited to, the terms "anticipate," "potential," "expect," "forecast," "target," "will," "intend," "believe," "project," "estimate," "plan" 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, which may include the following: the ability to successfully execute an exit from commodity-based generation; the risks associated with the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings involving FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. (FES), its subsidiaries, and FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) (FES Bankruptcy) that could adversely affect FirstEnergy, FirstEnergy's liquidity or results of operations, including, without limitation, that conditions to our settlement agreement with respect to the FES Bankruptcy settlement agreement may not be met or that such settlement agreement may not be otherwise consummated, and if so, the potential for litigation and payment demands against us by FES, FENOC or their creditors; the ability to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic and financial goals, including, but not limited to, our strategy to operate and grow as a fully regulated business, to execute our transmission and distribution investment plans, to continue to reduce costs through FE Tomorrow, which is the FirstEnergy initiative launched in late 2016 to identify our optimal organization structure and properly align corporate costs and systems to efficiently support FirstEnergy as a fully regulated company going forward, and other initiatives, and to improve our credit metrics, strengthen our balance sheet and grow earnings; legislative and regulatory developments at the federal and state levels, including, but not limited to, matters related to rates, compliance and enforcement activity; economic and weather conditions affecting future operating results, such as significant weather events and other natural disasters, and associated regulatory events or actions; changes in assumptions regarding economic conditions within our territories, the reliability of our transmission and distribution system, or the availability of capital or other resources supporting identified transmission and distribution investment opportunities; changes in customers' demand for power, including, but not limited to, the impact of state and federal energy efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates; changes in national and regional economic conditions affecting us and/or our major industrial and commercial customers or others with which we do business; the risks associated with cyber-attacks and other disruptions to our information technology system that may compromise our operations, and data security breaches of sensitive data, intellectual property and proprietary or personally identifiable information; the ability to comply with applicable state and federal reliability standards and energy efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates; changes to federal and state environmental laws and regulations, including, but not limited to, those related to climate change; changing market conditions affecting the measurement of certain liabilities and the value of assets held in our pension trusts and other trust funds, or causing us to make additional contributions sooner, or in amounts that are larger, than currently anticipated; the risks associated with the decommissioning of the retired nuclear facility owned by FirstEnergy subsidiaries; the risks and uncertainties associated with litigation, arbitration, mediation and like proceedings; labor disruptions by the unionized workforce of FirstEnergy subsidiaries; changes to significant accounting policies; any changes in tax laws or regulations, including the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, adopted December 22, 2017, or adverse tax audit results or rulings; the ability to access the public securities and other capital and credit markets in accordance with our financial plans, the cost of such capital and overall condition of the capital and credit markets affecting us; actions that may be taken by credit rating agencies that could negatively affect either our access to or terms of financing or our financial condition and liquidity; and the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in FirstEnergy's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. Dividends declared from time to time on FirstEnergy's common stock, and thereby on FirstEnergy's preferred stock, during any period may in the aggregate vary from prior periods due to circumstances considered by FirstEnergy's Board of Directors at the time of the actual declarations. A security rating is not a recommendation to buy or hold securities and is subject to revision or withdrawal at any time by the assigning rating agency. Each rating should be evaluated independently of any other rating. These forward-looking statements are also qualified by, and should be read together with, the risk factors included in FirstEnergy's SEC filings with the SEC, including but not limited to the most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, together with any subsequent Current Reports on Form 8-K. The foregoing review of factors also 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 our 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. We expressly disclaim any obligation to update or revise, except as required by law, any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.