BPU Has Until End of 2016 to Make MAIT Decision

The Board of Public Utilities has until the end of the year to decide whether or not it approves Jersey Central Power & Light's request to transfer the electric company's transmission assets to a newly formed spin-off, the Mid-Atlantic Interstate Transmission (MAIT), BPU spokeswoman Susanne LaFrankie told Patch.

"The matter will proceed until, at a minimum, the end of 2016," LaFrankie said. "There is no legal date by which the Board has to decide these types of matters."

A public hearing was held this past Tuesday night before BPU President Richard Mroz in Freehold, where even Congressman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) spoke against MAIT.

The MAIT request comes at the same time JCP&L is trying to simultaneously get the BPU to approve its Monmouth County Reliability Project, a deeply hated proposal to build 10 miles of power lines along the North Jersey Coast rail tracks — and through backyards — from Aberdeen to Red Bank.

A JCP&L spokesman said one has nothing to do with the other.

"The MAIT filing before the BPU is simply a request for corporate reorganization in order to have all the JCP&L transmission assets and the Met-Ed and Penelec transmission assets (other FirstEnergy operating companies in Pennsylvania) housed under one single entity," said spokesman Ron Morano. "The MAIT filing before the BPU has nothing to do with whether the Monmouth County Reliability Project will move forward."

But many who are trying to stop the Monmouth County Reliability Project say there is a connection.

"While they asking the BPU for this approval, they are proposing a new power line that is unneeded and unnecessary," said Jeff Tittel, Director of New Jersey Sierra Club. "JCP&L wants to transfer their transmission lines to a new company to make money, not to help service their customers. Now they want this new power line to increase the price they get to transfer their assets.

"MAIT is only a shell company," Hazlet resident Tara Corcoran-Clark said at the Freehold meeting, according to the Asbury Park Press."It wishes to be granted public utility status in order to fast-track transmission projects by having the power of eminent domain combined with the ability to bypass local municipal ordinances. Fast-tracking unnecessary transmission projects, such as JCP&L's Monmouth County Reliability Project, will be devastating to the ratepayers of New Jersey."

JCP&L says the MAIT transfer will save money and create jobs. According to testimony Mark Jones, JCP&L's vice president of external affairs, gave Tuesday night, should the MAIT transfer be approved:

• As part of the transaction, JCP&L will contribute all of its transmission assets to MAIT, which will thereafter own and operate those assets.
• JCP&L will also lease the real estate and real property rights associated with such transmission assets to MAIT.
• MAIT will, in the future, also construct, own, and operate new transmission facilities that will be constructed in JCP&L’s service territory.
• With respect to any JCP&L transmission projects that are currently in the planning or construction phase, MAIT will complete, own, and operate such new transmission facilities. In addition, JCP&L will also transfer certain distribution assets to MAIT, and MAIT will provide distribution service to five customers that are served from those distribution assets.

Photo: Holmdel and Middletown residents oppose the Monmouth County Reliability Project earlier this summer/Patch file photo