Company using advanced trenching technology
to help protect the environment
HOLMDEL,
N.J., Nov. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Jersey
Central Power & Light (JCP&L), a subsidiary of FirstEnergy
Corp. (NYSE: FE), is replacing an underwater, high-voltage power
line to enhance service reliability to New Jersey's barrier islands. The $12.5 million project is expected to be completed
in mid-December.
Once in service, the new 34.5-kilovolt line will be one of four
high-voltage power sources crossing the Barnegat Bay to serve more
than 13,000 JCP&L customers on the barrier islands, including
the communities of Point Pleasant
Beach, Bay Head,
Mantoloking, Normandy Beach, Brick, Lavallette, Dover/Toms
River, Ortley Beach,
Seaside Heights, Seaside Park, Berkeley and Island Beach State Park.
Doug Mokoid, FirstEnergy's
President, New Jersey: "The
replacement of this high-voltage line offers service-enhancing
redundancy into our barrier island system and delivers the power
capacity that the local communities require when the population
swells in the summer months. Completing this work in an innovative,
environmentally sensitive manner is also important to us."
A new 7,500-foot submarine cable will be installed using a
special 12-ton sled that is designed to be environmentally friendly
and cause minimal disruption to aquatic life. This sled, which is
about the size of a school bus, will use water jets to create a
trench. The jets will shoot water at a pressure of 150 pounds per
square inch to create a trench that is one foot wide and more than
10 feet deep, allowing for the installation of the new cables.
A large barge will transport heavy reels of armored submarine
cable and equipment while pulling the sled at speeds of up to 10
feet per minute. As the sled moves along the bay floor, the trench
collapses behind it, leaving a shallow depression to mark the
cable's location.
JCP&L serves 1.1 million customers in the counties of
Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union
and Warren. Follow JCP&L on X
@JCP_L, on Facebook at facebook.com/JCPandL or online at
jcp-l.com.
FirstEnergy is dedicated to integrity, safety, reliability and
operational excellence. Its electric distribution companies form
one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems,
serving customers in Ohio,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West
Virginia, Maryland and
New York. The company's
transmission subsidiaries operate approximately 24,000 miles of
transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic
regions. Follow FirstEnergy on X @FirstEnergyCorp or
online at firstenergycorp.com.
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SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.