Officials to JCP&L Manager: Improvements Needed

With about 90 percent of Bernards Township households left without power as a result of the Stan Prater, a JCP&L area manager who also lives in the township, says the power company crews reacted within a day to restore power to almost 6,000 of the 10,500 or so customers left in the dark by damaged wires, downed trees and destroyed equipment.

The crews that responded had to deal with such issues as 550 reported "hazard locations" of dangerous downed wires, damaged substations and 8,000 orders for tree removals, Prater told the at Tuesday's meeting of the governing body. In some cases, trees had to be removed and damage assessed even before wire repairs could begin, he said.

The October snowstorm was far worse in its devastation than in late August, said Prater, who later said his own home was among those without power after wet snow proved a heavy burden on trees still with their leaves.

"Our service territory is very heavily treed, and it does present a problem for us," Prater told officials. Despite all, Prater said that by the following Thursday JCP&L had met its stated goal of returning power to 95 percent of those who lost power during the previous Saturday's storm.

But in the next hour or so, Prater heard both suggestions and a dissection of JCP&L's reaction to the storm.

"We are looking for continued improvements," Mayor John Malay told Prater after the JCP&L manager heard criticism of the way the company communicated with residents and coordinated a response to outages until power was restored for the last households a week and a day after the snowstorm.

Although Prater did provide township officials with a street-by-street estimate of when power might be turned back on, Township Committeeman John Carpenter said JCP&L also should be providing that information directly to customers in a timely matter.

Prater said it took the power company about 72 hours to even assess the damage in the township, and he said that restoration times were estimates. That prompted officials to say they believe residents would rather receive estimates rather than being left without any answers.

"When there's a lack of communication, rumor fills the gap," Malay noted. Officials also said that a portion of the township was left off the list for estimated restoration times.

Among the suggestions was that more specific information on local outages be posted by JCP&L on its website, and that the power company work on contacting customers via "smart phones" to update them on their situation.

Asking customers for cell phone numbers could allow the power company to make the equivalent of a reverse 9-1-1 call with information, said Township Committeeman Scott Spitzer.

"That's being pursued," Prater said. He said he doesn't have a time frame on when such a plan might be implemented.

"At this stage, I am very unhappy with where you [JCP&L] are," Spitzer said.

Upon further questioning by Spitzer, Prater said some of the residents who were among the last to have their power restored the Sunday following the previous Saturday's storm were those who didn't realize that they should report outages to the power company to guarantee that JCP&L will realize they are without power.

Some of those homes might require service on wires leading directly into their homes, Prater later said.

Spitzer said he believes most people don't realize they are required to call in outages, even though Prater said notifications have for years been added as inserts in bills.

Township Committeewoman Carolyn Gaziano added that residents often were sitting in the cold and the dark trying to contact the power company with the limited battery power left on their cell phones.

"We are really lucky in this storm that it wasn't that cold," Gaziano observed. She and others asked Prater to bring officials' concerns back to his managers.

The meeting also was attended by State Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-District 21). Bramnick, who provided updates to local communities during the storm and is preparing a summation of concerns about JCP&L to bring to the state Board of Public Utilities told the Township Committee the township will need to make complaints to that state regulatory agency.

"Only the BPU can take disciplinary action...so you would need to direct your complaints to them," Bramnick advised township officials.

Bramnick said he already has a number of issues he plans to bring before the BPU. For example, he said he wants to know whether JCP&L had fewer resources, including crews, dedicated to this area compared with a decade ago.

He added there are neighborhoods in other municipalities that have repeated problems with electricity even without a storm. Malay said officials have been told that also is the case in Bernards.

Bramnick also said the crews should be tracked more carefully to best carry out repairs, and better estimate when work will be done.

It might also have helped if the work crews — many from out of state — were equipped with GPS units and mobil communications, said resident Todd Edelstein.

Edelstein also suggested that the township also have a command center where Office of Emergency Management coordinators and others could communicate to carry out the municipality's response.