Jersey Central Power & Light conducts storm restoration exercise

Jersey Central Power and Light (JCP&L) conducted its annual storm restoration exercise to prepare for hurricane season and severe summer storms.

The emergency readiness training, held virtually for the first time due to COVID-19 safety protocols, focused on restoring power in a severe weather event during a pandemic.

“There is no such thing as being overprepared for the storm season,” Alex Patton, JCP&L vice president of operations, said. “Regular exercises such as these ensure everyone is confident in their roles, emphasize the importance of safety, and allow us to test improvements we have made in a real-world scenario. They are another way that we invest in reliability for our customers.”

New actions were incorporated into the training this year following Tropical Storm Isaias last summer. They included enhancements to the estimated times of restoration processes to improve initial accuracy; comprehensive improvements in communications with customers and local officials; and upgraded systems in the event of facility outages to increase reliability and allow for faster response times.

The drill utilized the federal Incident Command System (ICS) to improve coordination and collaboration during major storms or other natural disasters.

“Our teams are always at the ready and follow a prescribed process when storms are in the forecast,” Jim Fakult, president of JCP&L, said. “Preparation is important for us, and as hurricane season begins, our customers should start to make sure their families are prepared as well.”

JCP&L employees from the operations, engineering, safety, logistics, communications, external affairs, customer support, facilities, corporate support and planning, and analysis groups participated in the drill. The exercises were overseen by representatives of New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities (BPU).

Hurricane season officially begins June 1. Family storm plans should include extra batteries and flashlights, blankets and sleeping bags, emergency supplies of bottled water, and convenient, non-perishable foods.

JCP&L, a subsidiary of First Energy, serves 1.1 million customers in the counties of Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union, and Warren.