Akron, OH-based FirstEnergy Corp. FE announced that its unit Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) has successfully concluded upgrade work on eight major circuits that serve nearly 15,000 customers in Monmouth County.
This upgrade is a part of enhancement expenditures worth nearly $6 million planned for more than 90 circuits across JCP&L’s 13-county service area this year. Overall, JCP&L expects to spend $267 million in 2015 for electric reliability programs.
JCP&L is a business unit of FirstEnergy, serving around 1.1 million customers in New Jersey. The subsidiary provides transmission and distribution services in 3,200 square miles of northern, western and east central New Jersey.
The enhancements included installation of more resilient polymer fuses, animal guards and lightning protection devices. The work also included the addition of larger arms for better wire clearance and planting fault indicators to help locate problem areas on a circuit.
These upgrades will help the company to make its electric system resilient by reducing the frequency and duration of service disruptions.
In 2014, JCP&L completed 160 service reliability projects for $250 million. These upgrades yielded positive results as the subsidiary witnessed a cutback of 17% in outages in 2014 compared with 2013.
Under the “Energizing the Future” initiative, this electric utility spent around $1.4 billion in 2014 and plans an outlay of $1 billion in 2015. FirstEnergy projects operating earnings per share in the range of $2.40 to $2.70 for 2015.
Zacks Rank
FirstEnergy currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the electric utility industry include Enersis S.A. ENI, sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and DTE Energy Company DTE and Alliant Energy Corporation LNT, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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