Politics & Government

Enhancements Help JCP&L Communication

Utility company follows-up with concerns brought up in March, discusses enhanced website.

A representative from JCP&L attended Wednesday night's meeting and addressed the company's communication enhancements since the two storms in 2011 that cost the township nearly $1 million.

Stan Prater, the municipal representative of JCP&L for the township, said the biggest improvement the utility company has added is a new website that allows customers to see when they have a power outage, and also to report outages instead of calling them in.

Prater's presentation was a follow-up to the concerns that were addressed at the on March 21.

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When JCP&L officials attended the March meeting, they listened to council members and residents express their concerns and ask questions about losing power during Hurricane Irene and the snowstorm in October.

Everyone at that meeting in March—the Board of Public Utilities president, JCP&L officials, council members and residents—came to a consensus that communication was the No. 1 issue during the storms.

Find out what's happening in Morris Township-Morris Plainswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"There was an incredible frustration at the local level that no information was flowing back about where the crews were and what the estimated time of restoration service was," BPU President Robert Hanna said at the March meeting.

In response to these concerns, JCP&L created a website that allows customers to report power and street light outages. It shows residents what regions are without power, the estimated time of restoration for those without power and regions with planned outages.

Prater said when customers report an outage, they'll get a notification that it was received, and then again when the outage was restored. Customers will also get notified if a repair will take longer than planned.

"We want to encourage the police, and residents to use the website because we feel that is going to be more efficient for you and us," Prater said.

The website, which initially debuted in February, had more .

Prater pointed out the new "24/7 Power Center" is accessible on both the Web and on Smartphones.

This new website solves some of the problems that few residents spoke about at the March meeting. Some expressed frustration that they couldn't get through past the automated message after they called the company. Now residents can turn to the website for a quicker, more efficient way of reporting an outage.

Prater also followed-up about the 13 residents who spoke at the March meeting about power-related issues. He said nine of those customers had issues that required a follow-up, and since then JCP&L has touched base with all of them.

"Our engineering group met with some of them, we went out and did some field inspections, and we've done some repairs," Prater said. "We followed up on all nine of those that had issues and brought those to resolution or they're on their way to resolution."

Lee Goldberg, a Morris Township resident who lives on Arrowhead Road, was one of those nine customers who spoke at the March meeting, and he was also at the meeting on Wednesday night.

"They were very professional, courteous," Goldberg addressed Prater and council members on Wednesday. "They came out and they addressed the problem, mediated the problem, and it was appreciative to have that service, so thank you very much."

Mayor Peter Mancuso also thanked Prater for the enhancements the company has done.

"We all appreciate your diligence," he said, "and your company's diligence since the two disasters that we had last year."


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