JCP&L Restores Power To Thousands After Neptune Substation Outage

NEPTUNE, NJ — By 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, JCP&L reported it had restored electrical service to all of the approximately 50,000 customers affected by a substation outage earlier in the day.

As of 7:30 p.m., JCP&L said that 5,200 customers in the Neptune-Bradley Beach area were still without power after the substation outage, but those customers had power restored as well.

A JCP&L high-voltage substation in Neptune went out at about 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, causing outages in satellite substations, a company spokesman said.

By 6 p.m. power was restored in seven of the approximately 10 satellite substations, Chris Hoenig, the spokesman said.

The cause of the initial outage is still not known, he said.

Hoenig said "pockets of customers" in towns in eastern and northern Monmouth County were affected - 50,000 customers at the peak of the outage. Entire towns were not affected, he added.

He said the satellite substations were restored within 40 minutes of the main outage.

JCP&L serves 1.1 million customers in central and northern New Jersey.

The outages in Monmouth County were not connected to other outages reported in areas served by First Energy, based in Ohio. JCP&L is an operating company of First Energy.

Hoenig said fewer than 1,500 First Energy customers in other states, mainly northwest Pennsylvania, lost power due to ice and snow from a lake effect wet snow. He said crews were working on restoring power in that area.