Casagrande, Handlin: “1000 times no to JCP&L rate increase”

Assemblywoman Amy Handlin

Public hearings for JCP&L’s proposed rate increase started yesterday in Toms River.  The Monmouth County hearing is on April 24 at the Freehold Township Municipal Building.

Assemblywomen Caroline Casagrande (R-11) and Amy Handlin (R-13) have already gathered 1300 constituent signatures on a petition opposing the JCP&L rate increase.  The petition will be submitted to the Board of the Public Utilities at the Freehold hearing.

“Our constituents are tired of over promises and underperformances by  their electric company and we’re going to make sure their voices are heard until  JCP&L pulls the plug on this rate hike,” Handlin, R-Monmouth, said.  “JCP&L’s customers have already paid the price by suffering through  prolonged outages, so our response to their request is a simple and firm,  ‘No.’”

Handlin and Casagrande noted their constituent’s outrage with JCP&L’s poor performance in restoring  power and keeping families, businesses and communities informed during prolonged  outages – most notably Hurricanes Sandy and Irene. The petition also notes the  allegation by the N.J. Division of Rate Counsel that the utility is earning too much profit from New Jersey ratepayers to send  back to its parent company in Ohio.

Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande

“We can say it once, or we can say it a thousand times, the answer is  still, ‘No,’” Casagrande, R-Monmouth, said. “Losing power for extended periods  of time is a very difficult and costly burden for families and businesses. We  have had more than our share of severe outages because JCP&L refused to  invest its corporate profits to update its infrastructure and keep the power on  in our communities.”

The petition can be signed online here.

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HANDLIN: JCP&L SHOULD INVEST TIME AND $$$ IN INFRASTRUCTURE INSTEAD OF RATE INCREASE

Last week, utility provider JCP&L announced it was investing $200 million this year to improve it electric support system in an effort to improve service reliability. Deputy Assembly Republican Leader Amy Handlin today asked why JCP&L did not disclose at the same time that it had filed for a 4.5 percent rate increase to recover costs from Superstorm Sandy and other storms which was revealed the next day.

“On Thursday, JCP&L was out front with the news that it was investing $200 million to improve its infrastructure and that ratepayers wouldn’t be affected because the costs were already part of the company’s yearly budget,” said Handlin, R-Monmouth. “At the end of the day on Friday, the utility then informs the public it is filing for a 4.5 percent increase to cover cleanup costs from previous storms. JCP&L is badly misinformed if it thought that tidbit would escape public notice.

“Good public relations starts with being upfront about everything, including an increase request that will be passed onto ratepayers,” said Handlin, who has been critical of the utility’s efforts in restoring lost power over the last two years. “Ratepayers deserve to see improvements to the critical framework in JCP&L’s system and have assurances that their infrastructure is reliable before a rate increase is even entertained.

“JCP&L should focus on improving its performance to its customers,” stated Handlin. “On Wall Street, bad news is often revealed after the closing bell. For customers of JCP&L, there is no closing bell. They just want to know the lights are on.” 

Last year, the Division of Rate Counsel filed a petition contending JCP&L is earning a profit exceeding 12 percent in New Jersey – far above the allowable 8.5 percent.

Handlin pointed out that PSE&G, the state’s largest utility provider, recently announced it was seeking the BPU’s approval to spend $3.9 billion over the next 10 years to protect and improve its electric and gas systems against severe weather conditions.

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JCP&L Executive Admits Company Does Not Prepare For Major Storms

What did JCP&L’s parent company learn from Hurricane Irene and the October 2011 Nor’easter? Nothing.  They just assumed their great grandchildren would have to just deal with the next one.

The president of First Energy Utilities (parent company of JCP&L) told financial analysts  that the company doesn’t plan for 100 year storms, according to a report on NJSpotLight.

“And I think we really understood that these storms are — I mean I tell Tony [Anthony Alexander, chief executive officer and executive director of FirstEnergy]  they are 100-year storms.’’

“So he’s not going to have to worry about them again, hopefully. But they can’t be prevented and you can’t plan for them,” Jones said.

“And I’ve gotten questions at the board [of directors] several times about how we’re going to increase our storm budget because of them and the answer is no. I mean, they are literally events that I don’t think we should plan for. When they come, we will deal with them,’’ Jones said.

Charles E Jones was speaking on a earnings call on February 29, 2012.

From First Energy’s website:

Charles E. Jones President, FirstEnergy Utilities

Charles E. Jones is president, FirstEnergy Utilities, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. He has responsibility for Energy Delivery, Customer Service, compliance with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission transmission requirements, and Energy Efficiency activities, while leading FirstEnergy’s 10 regulated electric utility companies and other regulated operations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia.

Chuck began his career with Ohio Edison as a substation engineer in 1978. He held a variety of positions in the Akron, Marion and Elyria areas, and in 1995 was named president of Ohio Edison’s Penn Power subsidiary. He returned to Akron in 1996 as division manager. Chuck was named president of FirstEnergy’s Northern Region in 1997, vice president of Regional Operations in 2001, senior vice president of Energy Delivery and Customer Service in 2003, and president, FirstEnergy Solutions Corp., in 2007. He was named senior vice president, Energy Delivery and Customer Service, in 2009, and senior vice president and president, FirstEnergy Utilities, in February 2010.

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Monmouth County Mayors Meet to Address JCP&L’s Shortcomings

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JCP&L Implements Web Based Outage Reporting

In response to customer and government complaints about communications during power outages resulting from last year’s storms, JCP& L has created an interactive website that lets customers report outages.  The site provides real time data including the number of people affected, estimated restoration times, photos and videos of damage and restoration efforts, according to a report on NJBIZ.

The site is hosted by Amazon.com’s servers so that it can be accessed in the event that power outages disable JCP&L’s primary site. It can be accessed by desktops, smartphones and mobile devices.

The FirstEnergy Storm Center can be viewed here.  Bookmark it.

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2139 Customers Without Power In Monmouth County

How would you like to be that one family in West Long Branch who has been without power for a week?

West Long Branch appears to have fared pretty well from the storm. When I first started tracking JCP&L’s estimates for customers without power on Tuesday there was only 35 customers without power in West Long Branch.  By Thursday evening West Long Branch was off the list, implying that power had been restored to the entire town.

On Friday one customer from West Long Branch was back on the list.  Maybe that customer’s power had been restored and went out again.  I’m guessing that it never went back on.  That JCP&L missed them.  There is still one West Long Branch customer on the list this morning.

That situation occurred to me.  Not this time, during some other summer outage.  I don’t remember which one, we’ve had at least one every summer, and one every other winter, since I moved to Highlands 10 years ago.  The entire town was without power for, I don’t remember…too long.  The town came back online and my house was still without power for a couple of days or three.

I was fortunate, which is probably why I don’t remember the details that well.  My commercial building in Belford had power.  We have a shower and a kitchen in the building.  We didn’t have to impose on neighbors to shower or store food.  I don’t know what the family in West Long Branch is going through, but I know it sucks to be the only one without power in your community for an extended period of time.

They or the one customer in Ocean Grove, Aberdeen, or Spring Lake Heights will probably be the last ones in Monmouth with the power turned on, as JCP&L finishes working on their “priorities” and then tracks back to the homes they missed the first time around.   There are 8 zip codes with only one customer without power in Monmouth County.  22 zip codes with between 2 and 16 customers without power.

JCP&L sucks.  Their infrastructure is aged and inadequate.  They didn’t respond to Irene like it was an emergency.  They responded like it was one of their “normal” annual power outages that was just bigger than usual.  They lie to their customers.  They lie to the mayors.  They lie to county OEMs. They like to state OEM.  They lie to BPU and they lie to the Govenor’s office.  They lie to their own government affairs representives.

There was a joke floating around facebook that JCP&L got religion….they said they could not control acts of God. They didn’t get religion.  Their preparation showed no fear of this act of God.  In their response they did not act like their customers are His children.

I hope that JCP&L suffers the wrath Chris Christie.

While the situation we have suffered this week is a failure for JCP&L, it is also a failure of government.

For too many decades the Board of Public Utilities has been a bureau of cozy cronyism where senior political hacks or their spouses were sent as a reward for their “service.”  It has been a piggy bank funded by ratepayers to fund experimental and inefficient wind and solar technologies and $80,000,000 off the books slush funds.

For decades BPU has looked the other way while JCP&L, a company owned by out of state utility conglomerates, “created efficiencies” by deferring maintenance and infrastructure upgrades. By reducing the number of New Jersey residents employed by the company.  

Democratic hacks whined when Chris Christie appointed the prosecutor who ran his Trenton U.S. Attorney’s Office as BPU President over McGreevey- Corzine hack Jeanne Fox.  Lee Solomon’s job in Christie’s cabinet got a whole lot more important this week.

Estimated Customers Out For
MONMOUTH County
As of Sep 3, 2011 9:47 AM

Total Out = 2139

By the way, PSEG had only 300 customers without power in their entire service area as of 9PM last night.

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Wyndmoor Condos Get Power At 7:20 AM

Highlands Mayor Frank Nolan at Wyndmoor Condos 12:30 AM September 3

Yesterday afternoon JCP&L Government Affairs Rep Roberta Sheridan told Highlands Mayor Frank Nolan that tonight’s first crew would be dispatched to Highlands at 10PM to restore power to the Wyndmoor Condominiums.

Nolan held a public information meeting for Highlands residents Friday evening.  There were about 100 residents there, 40 from Wyndmoor.  Meals had been provided earlier in the day at the community center.  Too bad showers couldn’t be provided.   Nolan relayed JCP&L’s commitment to a respectful, yet frustrated and skeptical crowd .

At 11:30 a JCP&L rep, Jackie, told Nolan that the crew was in Union Beach heading to Highlands.  Nolan headed to Wyndmoor where he found residents Dick McCormick and Ray Goddard waiting.  McCormick had been waiting since 9:30.

Ray Goddard, Mayor Frank Nolan and Dick McCormick, a 12:15 AM September 3, waiting for JCP&L's crew to arrive at Wyndmoor Condos to restore power for 125 families

Wyndmoor has 125 electrical customers.  At 11:12 PM on Friday, JCP&L posted that only 79 Highlands customers were without power.

Goddard sent me at text at  11:27, “no trucks at Wyndmoor.”

The trucks showed up at 1:17 AM.  The power finally went on at 7:20 AM.

Highlands Mayor Frank Nolan and a JCP&L lineman, 1:30 AM, September 3, 2011

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4231 Customers Still Without Power In Monmouth County

Estimated Customers Out For
MONMOUTH County
As of Sep 2, 2011 11:12 PM

Total Out = 4231

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Fiore: “JCP&L’s communication to the public is terrible”

“Government Affairs Representative Roberta Sheridan’s communication is fantastic”

“People think I am making this crap up!” exclaimed Middletown Mayor Tony Fiore in frustration over JCP&L personnel giving the public information that contradicts what he has been told by JCP&L’s government affairs representative Roberta Sheridan.

“Sheridan is doing a great job,” said Fiore, “she told me at 10:30 this morning that there were still 1518 customers in the township without power and that 1264 of them would be restored today and 254 tomorrow. Linemen are telling people they won’t have power anytime soon. On the phone they’re telling people they will have power next week.”

Fiore asked that MMM post Sheridan’s email so that Middletown residents would have accurate information and would not think that he is a sewer truck:

From: rsheridan

Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2011 10:31:02 -0400

To: <[email protected]>

Subject: update

we are working all over the township today……….waiting for the areas to be identified……..total of 1,518 customers out in all of the Township, today we are scheduled to bring 1, 264 back in power the remaining 254 tomorrow………..r

Roberta Sheridan
JCP&L

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5093 Still Without Power In Monmouth County

5093 Monmouth County customers are still without power as of noon on Friday.

Joan’s power at the Toll Bros Riviera in Freehold Township came on overnight, but she is not happy.  “JCP&L’s performance and communications were dispicable.  I hope the Governor does something about it,” said Joan.

132 customers are still without power in Highlands.   Meals will be distributed to Highlands residents without power this after noon between 3:30 and 6:30 at the community center on Snug Harbor Ave.  Mayor Frank Nolan will hold a public information meeting at the community center at 7PM.

Estimated Customers Out For
MONMOUTH County
As of Sep 2, 2011 11:56 AM

Total Out = 5093

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