FirstEnergy area in N. J. was left in the dark back in
July
08/31/03
Dave Davis and Peter Krouse Plain Dealer
Reporters
Speculation that mishaps in FirstEnergy's service territory in the
Northeast triggered the largest blackout in U.S. history probably comes as
little surprise to the residents of New Jersey.
That state's governor, James McGreevey, was so miffed after power
outages along the central coast in July that he ordered the hiring of a
special reliability master to ride herd on Jersey Central Power &
Light, a FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiary.
Sporadic blackouts from the early afternoon of July 5 to early morning
July 8 affected more than 40,000 customers and 10,000 tourists in and
around Seaside Heights. It "stemmed from the lack of modernized
infrastructure and investment in that infrastructure," said McGreevey's
press secretary, Micah Rasmussen.
The problems occurred on a 34.5-kilovolt system serving the island
community through three lines. One of the lines had been repaired just
before that July weekend. The fault was near an area previously repaired
after damage caused by a sewer company excavation.
Ken Hershey, mayor of Seaside Heights, said most of the tourists that
weekend went home because of the power failures.
"The town was packed," said Hershey, who also owns the Big Top Arcade.
"We lost millions of dollars. We have a big boardwalk - rides, attractions
- and all that had to close down."
That weekend's blackouts were part of a spike in service interruption
complaints throughout the state, which at last count totaled 294 this
year. That's up from 222 at this time last year and 155 in 2001.
FirstEnergy bought GPU Inc., which included Jersey Central and other
utilities in Pennsylvania, in November 2001.
"We're certainly aware of the need to improve the reliability of that
system, and we're committed to doing that," FirstEnergy spokesman Ralph
DiNicola said.
Besides taking a series of steps to improve reliability in the Seaside
Heights area, the company is investing in the rest of New Jersey, too.
That includes the accelerated spending of $60 million over two years in
addition to $240 million budgeted in 2003 for operation, maintenance and
capital costs, DiNicola said.
Marie Maruca, executive director of the Seaside Heights Business
Improvement District, said loss of power in her area, especially during
the Fourth of July holiday when demand is high, has been a chronic problem
the last several years, but not to the degree it was last month.
Maruca suggested that GPU had cut back on maintenance before its sale
to FirstEnergy.
"I know when you're trying to sell a business you want your bottom line
to look the best it can be," she said.
Jersey Central agreed to reimburse some businesses and residents for
losses stemming from the July Fourth weekend. About $29,000 has been paid
to merchants for lost revenue, Maruca said. Residents also are being
reimbursed, she said, primarily for food that went bad in refrigerators.
The previous summer, Jersey Central came under scrutiny after it took
three days to restore power to 35,000 customers after a storm. In a
settlement reached in February with the New Jersey Board of Public
Utilities, Jersey Central agreed to, among other things, increase staffing
and to hire a consultant to help improve relations between management and
the union.
This year, lawyers for the city of Solon asked Ohio regulators to
intervene after FirstEnergy's Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. was
unable to keep the power on in May and June. The outages affected hundreds
of businesses and residents in the city.
And, in Pennsylvania, nearly 100,000 FirstEnergy customers in Erie,
York and Reading lost power last November and December. Reports filed with
state and federal regulators show that trees fell and equipment failed as
snow piled up.
FirstEnergy spokesman DiNicola said the company has upgraded its system
in Solon to fix problems. He said the company should not be held
accountable for the fierce winter storm that knocked out power in
Pennsylvania late last year.
"There was a big snowstorm Christmas Day," DiNicola said. "Big
snowstorms bring branches down that go into wires and cause outages."
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