Troubled JCP&L Needs Better Communication, Says Official

Municipalities in northern New Jersey are making moves to dump electric provider Jersey Central Power & Light, and Barnegat Administrator David Breeden said that while the township has no plans to get off JCP&L's grid, the company has to make improvements in communication.

Robbinsville and Warren Township made the news last week for filing requests with the state Board of Public Utilities for permission to switch to Public Service Electric & Gas, and according to the Star Ledger, 14 other towns are considering the same move, spurred on by what they say was a poor response following recent storms.

Some Jersey Shore towns are , too, saying the company cares more about its bottom line than serving customers, and that communication between the company and municipalities is lacking during outage situations. 

Breeden echoed some of those complaints, and said that as a dual-provider town, Barnegat has the ability to compare JCP&L’s service to that of Atlantic City Electric, which services much of the western section of the township. In Breeden’s mind, there’s no question of who comes out on top.

“JCP&L could take some lessons from Atlantic City Electric with regard to outreach and contacting government officials during times of crisis,” he said.

ACE is usually ahead of the game, contacting officials directly when problems arise, said Breeden. During Hurricane Irene, “Atlantic City Electric was calling me and letting me know where outages were.” 

JCP&L, on the other hand, relies on faxes during storms, he said.

In a recent Patch interview, company spokesman Ron Morano said JCP&L has recently implemented several suggestions it received from mayors and cutomers across the state after the hurricane. When the Halloween storm hit, he said, the company held conference calls with officials.

“We communicated with the mayors throughout the entire storm,” he said. “In addition to the calls, we set up a special webpage, communicated estimations of customers by county, municipality and location within municipality – all suggestions that came about from meetings following the hurricane.”

Breeden acknowledged the company has been working to improve communication. The conference call “was a first for them,” he said. And the township has no plans to follow the lead of some disgruntled municipalities and request to switch entirely to another provider. “To me, that’s not a practical or viable solution to the issue,” Breeden said. 

But he thinks JCP&L should keep looking to ACE as a model of how to do business. Communication matters to the township because it matters to residents.

“When the power goes out, people call the township,” he said. “It’s important for us to know what’s happening.”