Power Line Upgrades Coming For Lacey, JCP&L Says

LACEY, NJ — JCP&L has announced that the company is investing $108 million through 2028 to bolster Ocean County's electric grid.

The county has grown by about 30,000 residents from 2020 to 2024, according to U.S. Census estimates. And businesses/developers have applied for more than 50 MW of new connections in the past year, JCP&L said.

"Ocean County is growing at a pace that traditional forecasting formulas can't keep up with," said Doug Mokoid, FirstEnergy's President, New Jersey. "We're taking a fresh approach to improving reliability now and meeting power demand for years to come."

Of that investment, $29 million is set for part of JCP&L's New Jersey Reliability Improvement Project, a two-phase effort to enhance the reliability of lines with a history of outages. These investments will include thicker, stronger wires and poles and additional protective and automatic transfer devices in Lakehurst, Manchester, Berkeley and Lacey townships.

That will come in 2026 to 2028, according to JCP&L.

An initial $21 million in upgrades will be completed in Ocean County this year. Work includes adding two new transformers and upgrading an existing transformer at a local substation to provide more electricity for the area.

Upgraded power lines are in store for Toms River, Jackson and Lakewood.

Another $58 million in Ocean County upgrades are planned through 2028 as part of EnergizeNJ, JCP&L's three-and-a-half year infrastructure investment program. Approved by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) in April 2025, EnergizeNJ supports system resiliency and grid and substation modernization.