Outraged N.J. Towns Ask State To Let Them Pull Plug On JCP&L – Should Lakewood Request The Same?

[TAKE THE TLS POLL IN EXTENDED ARTICLE] Two municipalities in Jersey Central Power & Light’s territory have filed requests with the state asking to switch to Public Service Electric & Gas, and the mayor of one says 14 other towns have expressed interest in doing the same, according to a report in the Star Ledger.

The requests were made by Warren Township and Robbinsville after a litany of complaints were lobbed at JCP&L, and to a lesser extent PSE&G, after extensive outages from Hurricane Irene and the Oct. 29 snowstorm.

JCP&L serves 1.1 million customers, mostly in northwestern parts of the state and areas south of Perth Amboy. PSE&G covers the other diagonal strip of the state, from Bergen County in the northeast to Mercer County in the west, and has 2.2 million customers.

Should Lakewood request the switch too?

Take the TLS poll below.

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24 COMMENTS

  1. Who would we switch to? Someone with very deep pockets would need to express an interest in taking over the infrastructure. The current company has VERY deep pockets and friend in very high places. A protracted battle would take place and the legal fees would bankrupt the town. There is not enough rate of return to purchase every foot of wire, pole and electrical device that is owned by the current company and still be able to break even for a new vendor. It would take many years to make even the smallest of profit. The other issue is how much would money would have to be spent to update the current infrastructure to accommodate 250,000 people that will call the town home in the near future. This endeavor is like chasing fool’s gold. Your beef should be with those politicians who voted for the deregulation of the industry. Before deregulation the industry had very minimal problems with extended outages.
    All these big companies worry about is the stock holder and their dividend
    Let them fix their lights first before you attack them again.

  2. 1. i’ve reported stretlight outages about a dozen times in the last 5 years. In every single case it was fixed within 2 business days. I reported a light that was out for two years (County line and mulberry) and it too was fixed within 2 days! If people report, it gets fixed!

    2. Lakewood was spared the big blackouts that the tristate area has suffered over the past few years.

    We sound like the “boy who cried wolf”! Lets stick to real problems (NJAW, for example)

  3. Just because this is the Lakewood Scoop doesn’t mean only those residents read this!
    Us Jacksonites have our problems, too…it took JCP & L a week, yes, a full 7 days to fix a downed, live wire. That’s unacceptable.

  4. I don’t work for JCP&L and I have reported street lights out on my street and it was repaired within a day. Maybe it depends on how you talk to people on the phone.

  5. what makes you think that PSE&G is any better with their rates and response times for emergencies..they will be just as bad..and prob worse since they dont have any locations close to here for trucks and manpower

  6. throw out the water company. they say my water meter is not working properly. they go and install a new water meter and charge me an extra hundred dollars they think i might have used. a friend told me they did the same to him. how many more lkwd people did they do this too.

  7. changing companies will NOT help.

    Putting large fines for outages, overcharges, too long to restore service,
    re-embursment for losses & damages, with fines going to customers (& Township) would help.

    the un-bundling of service & delivery raised the price per kilowatt about 7 or 8 cents per kilowatt

  8. Down with the water co. Down with the water co. Any to give orders ? I ready to follow ! Down with the water co. Down with the water co.
    Let’s march on Trenton!anybody?

  9. Hi, please do an article + vote for the NJAW company. We want them their rates are crazy. Its only water!
    Vote for deregulated water supply!

  10. For Lakewood, the issue is definitely the water company, New Jersey American Water. I would really like to see the Township Committee speak up loudly and clearly to describe their efforts in this regard and the options that are available to the Township

Comments are closed.