Resident Calls for Power Company Investigation

David Brook doesn’t live near the mountains in Hillsborough. During Hurricane Irene and the October snowstorm, his Winding Way home wasn’t as badly affected by power outages like homes on Zion Road, Montgomery Road and other portions of Hillsborough.

It’s the disparity that has had him asking the township about an inquiry into the service differences, and brought him Tuesday night’s Township Committee meeting.

“I guess it’s out of empathy more than anything else,” he said. “Why should we have good service and them not?”

During a formal request made during the public-comment portion of the meeting, Brook asked the committee to investigate the actions of both PSE&G and JCP&L, Hillsborough’s electric service providers. According to state laws, municipalities enter service agreements with electric utility companies where the municipality designates the geographic area a company will serve.

“Depending on the conditions of these agreements, Hillsborough may have grounds to seek to change them, including terminating an agreement or modifying the service territory,” Brook said. “This is a contract of sorts, but, the bottom line is that you (the township) and the residents of Hillsborough decide and give permission to each of these electrical utilities to serve the residents of Hillsborough.”

According to Brook’s research, once the agreements are obtained, the township could investigate its options of modifying the agreements. That change would be as a petition to the state Board of Public Utilities, he said.

Brook also suggested that the township solicit input from affected residents on the electric service, contact the BPU about potential investigations and contacting towns that petitioned the BPU about modifying electrical service. He also suggested requesting summary reports from each provider, detailing the provider’s response to each incident, releasing the information to the public, and holding a special meeting for comments.

Brook is not connected with either power company, though he had at one point had a connection with the BPU, he stated. And, though his house is across town, his trip to the western portion of town during October convinced him of the problem.

“I went into the Sourland mountains after the October snowstorm, and it was painfully apparent that JCP&L had failed to properly maintain and operate an efficient electrical delivery system,” he said. “Granted, there are more trees there, but it seemed like it took forever for residents to regain their power.”

 The township has already requested copies of its electric agreements from JCP&L and PSE&G, but the companies are still searching for the documents, Township Administrator Mike Merdinger said.

“Hopefully, we can have a meeting with JCP&L in the next month,” Merdinger said. “He contacted me, but his message was, ‘I don’t have the franchise agreement yet, but I’m trying.’ ... But I really think that this falls under the Board of Public Utilities.”

In addition, the township passed a resolution supporting a JCP&L inquiry  shortly after Hurricane Irene, Deputy Mayor Gloria McCauley said. In addition, McCauley will attend a county Mayor’s roundtable next week, where mayors from Somerset County will meet with PSE&G, she said.

“It was a state-wide concern, not just here in Hillsborough,” McCauley said. “...It’s definitely been addressed from that level.”

“It didn’t go away and it’s not being forgotten about, although none of us have the power to bring electricity back as soon as everyone would like to,” she added. “...We are aware that JCP&L had its challenges. ... We were in touch with them at the time. ... We did get day-to-day updates from them. They were well aware that Hillsborough was unhappy. “

Brook and Mayor Carl Suraci noted that the environment and grid issues may contribute to JCP&L's problems in Hillsborough, though Suraci noted that a staffing shortage may also be part of the response problem. 

"They don't have the resources to maintain and to respond," Suraci said. "I'd like to just think it could be a Capital Equipment improvement, but I think right now it's a bottom-line decision."

But any township action is contingent upon receiving the franchise agreement from JCP&L, he added.

"Hopefully, once we get that agreement, by all means I would love to see if there's a way to get out with them," Mayor Suraci said. "You can rest assured, when we're ready...to find a time to bring their government affairs official here to a meeting for basically an open-mic session."