Jersey Central Power & Light to Invest $108 Million Through 2028 to Strengthen Electric Grid in Ocean County, NJ
Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L), a FirstEnergy electric company, plans to invest $108 million through 2028 to strengthen the electric grid in Ocean County, New Jersey.
The company is making updates to the power system to make it more dependable, fix outages more quickly and provide enough electricity to progress with the county's increasing energy demands. In 2024, Ocean County businesses and developers have applied to JCP&L for more than 50 MW of new connections, enough to power approximately 50,000 homes.
An initial $21 million in upgrades will be completed in Ocean County in 2025, which includes adding two new transformers and upgrading an existing transformer at a local substation to provide more electricity for the area. Some of the new electricity will power new homes and businesses.
In case of a power outage, the increased power will help JCP&L get customers' electricity back on more quickly by switching them to another line while the problem is fixed.
JCP&L is also upgrading power lines to make them stronger, especially during bad weather. Area projects include:
- Lakewood: Replacing more than three miles of lines on South Hope Chapel Rd., Brook Rd. and Ocean Ave. with new, larger wire and adding extra underground wires in the Leisure Village community.
- Jackson: Upgrading to larger wire along South Hope Chapel Rd. and Brewers Bridge Rd. and adding a new line near Six Flags Great Adventure. This will help JCP&L quickly reroute power around trouble areas during an outage and reduce the number of customers affected. New devices will also be installed to automatically transfer customers in the northeastern portion of town to unaffected lines during an outage.
- Toms River: Relocating existing equipment north of Route 37 to safer locations, helping prevent outages and allow faster repairs. Installation of devices to automatically switch service to another line if a problem arrives, which will make power more reliable for customers in the Leisure Village area, southwestern portion of town, Manchester and Lakehurst.
JCP&L will invest an additional $29 million in Ocean County from 2026 to 2028 as part of its New Jersey Reliability Improvement Project, a two-phase effort to enhance the reliability of lines with a history of outages. The investments include stronger wires and poles and additional protective and automatic transfer devices in Lakehurst, Manchester, Berkeley and Lacey townships.
Another $58 million in Ocean County upgrades are planned through 2028 as part EnergizeNJ, JCP&L's three-and-a-half year infrastructure investment program. EnergizeNJ is approved by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) in April 2025, supporting system resiliency and grid and substation modernization.
Planned work includes:
- Adding new power lines to reduce the number of customers affected by outages
- Installing more than 200 new TripSaver devices to automatically restore power caused by temporary conditions (such as tree branches bouncing off lines)
- Adding more automatic transfer devices
- Modernizing substation equipment
- Replacing substation equipment at coastal substations susceptible to salt
JCP&L's New Jersey Reliability Improvement Project and EnergizeNJ are part of Energize365, FirstEnergy's long-term investment program to modernize the electric grid. FirstEnergy plans to invest $28 billion through Energize365 between 2025 and 2029.