​Point Pleasant Boro Gets JCP&L To Complete Major System Upgrades

POINT PLEASANT BORO – Local officials say they want to prevent a recurrence of the long-term power outages that have impacted Point Pleasant Boro over the last two years.

Finding these outages "unacceptable," Mayor Robert Sabosik and the Borough Council engaged in several recent meetings with representatives from Jersey Central Power & Light in an effort to upgrade and strengthen the electric infrastructure.

As a result, JCP&L has completed over $700,000 worth of upgrades since the fall that are expected to significantly reduce the number of outages going forward, Sabosik said.

While severe storms will still cause some outages, Sabosik said, the work that has been done "should mitigate sporadic and unnecessary outages going forward."

In the past, even with the slightest storms or weather events, the power would go out for extended periods of time often with no answer from JCP&L, Sabosik said.

“It seemed for a long time that our community was being overlooked. Our residents pay their electric bills to JCP&L but have not gotten any return on their money in regard to infrastructure upgrades," Sabosik said.

Sabosik said the town found this "entirely unacceptable" and started engaging JCP&L in a series of meetings to get some much-needed infrastructure upgrades to Point Pleasant Boro.

Point Pleasant Boro is fed through a combination of substations at the Woodland Avenue Substation, the Route 88 Point Pleasant Substation, the Point Pleasant Beach Substation and the Herbertsville Road Brick Township Substation.

Breakers, transmission lines and other equipment were constantly failing at these facilities, specifically at the Woodland Avenue Substation that feeds the majority of the town, Sabosik said

“Mayor Sabosik and the Council fielded a high volume of complaints from residents over the last few years pertaining to power outages," said Borough Administrator Frank Pannucci Jr. "The mayor vowed not to let our community be overlooked and demanded that JCP&L take a good look at their electric infrastructure here and start to improve it.

"JCP&L was very receptive to our governing body’s requests and immediately began to investigate what could be improved quickly and to create a long-term action plan going forward.”

The upgrades that JCP&L has just completed were numerous, Sabosik said:

• JCP&L performed a study and review of the circuits that serve Point Pleasant Boro.
• This review identified items of concern that were targeted for replacement or upgrades.
• These items ranged from enhanced tree trimmings, such as overhang brush removal touching wires; replacing relays within the substations that serve the Boro; installing additional equipment, such as remote communication equipment that monitors the status of breakers and lines being fed by substations; installing new reclosers, or equipment that automatically recloses open fuses or circuits without the requirement of a line or sub-station worker; and replacing all brushings and oil pumps, specifically at the Woodland Substation.”

Council President Antoinette “Toni” DePaola said that, now if there is an outage, JCP&L can remotely scan the area and find what is wrong and where the problem is in certain locations "instead of waiting hours to have someone manually inspect lines and substations."