After years of alleged reliability problems, New Jersey utility regulators are intensifying their response to Jersey Central Power & Light while also scrutinizing outages from July storms that left customers without power for days in dangerous heat.
For households that dealt with spoiled food, overheated homes, and disrupted medical needs, the state's latest action suggests utility performance failures could face more serious consequences.
What happened?
According to The Two River Times, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities voted on July 15 to restart an enforcement case that could bring as much as $44.1 million in fines against JCP&L, while also opening a separate inquiry into the company's response to the July 3 storm system.
In that revived show-cause case, regulators allege that JCP&L repeatedly missed the state's "Minimum Reliability Levels" for storm response and restoration from 2022 through 2024.
The board said the utility's statewide average customer response time "continued to worsen each year" and also alleged the company "failed to reasonably examine its equipment and circuits for causes of systemic outages and implement corrective measures."
Over four days of severe thunderstorms, flooding, and damaging winds, about 230,000 JCP&L customers across New Jersey lost service, including nearly 50,000 in Monmouth County. JCP&L serves about 1.1 million customers in New Jersey.
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JCP&L disputed the proposed penalty in April and said it would work toward "a balanced resolution that addresses the Board's concerns, delivers direct and lasting benefits to customers, and preserves the Company's ability to make the long-term investments necessary to support reliability and grid resilience."
Why does it matter?
In comments to the BPU, residents described long outages that left them without air conditioning during the heat wave, caused food to spoil, and, in some cases, cut off electricity needed for medical equipment.
As BPU President Ben Hertz-Shargel put it, "New Jersey residents deserve safe, affordable, reliable electric service, and this proceeding reflects the Board's commitment to holding utilities accountable when they fail to meet our standards."
What's being done?
Regulators are moving forward on two tracks at once.
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The BPU restarted the reliability case and assigned Commissioner Christine Guhl-Sadovy to oversee hearings in an effort to speed it up. It also launched a new investigation into JCP&L's handling of the July 3 storms.
People and organizations that want to intervene in either case — the reliability matter, Docket No. EO25070453, or the storm response investigation, Docket No. EO26070387 — need to submit filings by August 12 through the BPU Office of the Secretary at board.secretary@bpu.nj.gov or through the state's online e-filing system.
Utilities must turn in post-event reports no later than 20 days after major storms, which could help regulators determine whether staffing, preparation, and communication matched the scale of the emergency.
JCP&L spokesperson Chris Hoenig said the company was still emphasizing reliability improvements, saying, "JCP&L is committed to delivering safe, reliable electric service and we are investing more than $1 billion this year alone in enhancing reliability."
Hertz-Shargel said, "We will continue to closely scrutinize JCP&L's performance, take corrective actions, and use every tool available to defend utility customers across the state."
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