Learn more about EnergizeNJ below:

• What is EnergizeNJ and how much will it cost?

  EnergizeNJ is a five-year, $930.5 million investment plan that will strengthen the backbone of JCP&L’s local electric system, providing the foundation for additional smart grid capabilities in the future.

  Enhancements proposed in the new plan are broken into three key investment areas:

  • Grid modernization
  • System resiliency
  • Substation modernization

  
  The $930.5 million proposal represents the largest infrastructure upgrade investment in JCP&L history.

• What is included in the Grid Modernization program?

  EnergizeNJ’s $271.2 million Grid Modernization initiative focuses on enhancing reliability performance, hardening the electric system against storms, expanding capacity and seamlessly integrating advanced technologies.

  It includes:

  • Upgrading more than 410 miles of overhead power lines using more robust wiring and stronger, more durable poles, as well as replacing approximately 46 miles of aging underground lines with new, more protected cables.
  • Installing 2,069 TripSaver devices across 487 JCP&L circuits. These automated devices help limit the frequency and duration of power outages by sensing temporary abnormal conditions, such as a tree limb blowing into a power line, and automatically re-energizing the line after the temporary condition has passed. The devices also safely isolate the condition from other power lines, helping to reduce the number of customers affected. TripSavers installed during 2019’s Reliability Plus investment program prevented more than 3.2 million minutes of cumulative customer outages within 24 months of installation.
  • Burying seven miles of specific overhead lines and implementing extra circuit protections to prevent or minimize service disruptions.
• What is included in the System Resiliency program?

  EnergizeNJ’s $559.3 System Resiliency initiative focuses on outage recovery, accelerating restoration times following severe weather, enhanced flexibility in the energy delivery system and an increase in equipment automation.

  It includes:

  • Standardizing voltage across JCP&L’s distribution grid, allowing more circuits to be tied together and increasing the ability to reroute power around damage. This isolates damage areas, minimizing the number of customers affected. As part of this, 18 substations will be upgraded to add electrical capacity to more quickly enable the restoration of customers.
  • Interconnecting existing circuits to provide additional redundancy and enhancing outage restoration.
  • Building new circuits to add capacity and increase redundancy in the electrical grid.
• What is included in the Substation Modernization program?

  EnergizeNJ’s $100 million Substation Modernization initiative focuses on upgrading substation equipment while increasing remote access and automation capabilities within the facilities.

  It includes:

  • Installing modern protective devices, limiting damage potential.
  • Enhancing key components at coastal substations known as switchgear. This equipment would be replaced and given more protective housing to mitigate the effects of the increased salt in the environment.
  • Purchasing additional mobile substations, which are built on flatbed trailers and provide redundancy and emergency back-up capacity in the event of significant power outages. These units can also be transported throughout JCP&L’s service area to provide capacity during times of increased demand (such as summers on the barrier islands), scheduled maintenance or unplanned outages.
• What are the benefits of the work included in EnergizeNJ?

  The benefits of EnergizeNJ’s initiatives include reducing the frequency and duration of power outages and increasing the capacity of the electrical grid to accommodate new energy resources.

  By storm hardening the system and utilizing smart grid technology such as TripSavers, customers are less likely to experience sustained power outages. Upgrading overhead wires and interconnecting circuits allows damage areas to be isolated and downstream customers to be backfed by neighboring circuits, reducing the duration of outages that do occur.

  The increased capacity of new and upgraded circuits allows the system to accommodate the additional energy introduced to the system by new resources, such as solar developments, and supports the increasing electrification of society in New Jersey, including electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

  Additionally, EnergizeNJ will support highly-skilled, good paying union jobs in the state.

• Where will this work be done?

  Locations for EnergizeNJ upgrades and enhancements are data-driven, and based on a review of historical outage patterns across the service area that has identified areas that could benefit most from upgraded power lines and new technology.

• How will this affect customer bills?

  The EnergizeNJ proposal is designed to enhance the electrical grid in an affordable, responsible manner. JCP&L’s residential rates are – and will remain – the lowest of the four regulated electric companies in New Jersey.

  To minimize the impact on customers, bill increases would be done incrementally over the five-year project. For the typical JCP&L residential customer using 777 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month, whose bill is currently $121.80, the seven incremental increases would increase their bill by a total of $4.07, or 3.3%, at the end of the five-year period.

  The incremental increases range from $0.17, or 0.1%, to $0.89, or 0.7%. The first increase – costing $0.42, or 0.3% – would take place April 1, 2025.

  Customers are expected to benefit from an approximately $3.36 billion return in reliability benefits¹ by reducing non-storm outages and improving JCP&L’s ability to restore power following a major storm event.

  ¹ Benefits calculated using the U.S. Department of Energy’s Interruption Cost Estimate tool.

   

• Has this program been revised since November 2023?

  In February 2024, JCP&L filed a revised EnergizeNJ proposal with the NJ BPU, pursuant to an agreement with the Board.

  As part of the revision, JCP&L will accelerate $95 million in near-term infrastructure investments in 18 high-priority circuits, chosen based on historical outage data and reliability performance. These investments, which represent the first phase of a broader investment in the reliability of these high-priority circuits, have been removed from the original proposal.

  The second phase improvements to these circuits, which include $90 million in long-term investments such as reconfiguring circuits, the installation of circuit ties and the addition of new sources of power, have been added to the EnergizeNJ proposal.