The Board advanced a penalty case against JCP&L and opened a storm review, after three years of reliability failures and hundreds of thousands left without power in a heat wave.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities escalated its existing reliability enforcement case against JCP&L on July 15 and opened a separate review under Docket No. EO26070387 to examine utility storm responses, according to a Board press release. The Board gave outside parties until August 12 to seek standing in Docket No. EO25070453, the reliability case, and noted that existing rules require detailed post-storm filings within 20 days. The BPU placed Commissioner Christine Guhl-Sadovy in charge of the reliability proceeding.

Action came after early July storms and heat wave

Severe storms struck New Jersey on the evening of July 3 into July 4, 2026. JCP&L reported more than 200,000 customers experienced outages as of July 4, with approximately 150,000 remaining out as of that morning. 

At 6 p.m. on July 4, JCP&L's outage count was more than four times that of PSE&G — 110,668 to 24,326 — according to NorthJersey.com. JCP&L said that winds hit 67 mph at their peak on the night of July 3, adding that it was working with local governments and emergency responders to restore service. 

By the morning of July 5, JCP&L said it had brought 230,000 customers back online, out of roughly 300,000 total. The utility said it had more than 1,700 people on the job, including line crews and forestry teams, with more workers en route.

Additional storms struck that night. 

Franklin Township, in Somerset County, issued a July 6 briefing to elected officials that put the total outages at 325,000, with 280,000 restored and 40,000 still dark at midday. The township also recorded winds above 65 mph. JCP&L said that day that over 2,900 workers were on restoration duty.

The New Jersey Utilities Association said roughly 850,000 utility customers statewide lost power between July 3 and July 6. 

Assemblyman Greg McGuckin (R, 10th District) said on July 15 that "it's unacceptable that every summer we continue to end up like a third-world country every time there's a storm."

Company spokesman Chris Hoenig said the same day that the July storms produced "impacts comparable to those experienced during a hurricane." Hoenig also said that JCP&L had invested more than $1 billion this year alone in enhancing the grid, and that the company mobilized approximately 5,700 personnel to restore power.

The Board's July 15, 2026 press release listed storm complaints, including "lengthy estimated restoration times, inadequate communication with local officials, and concerns about the adequacy of utility restoration resources." The press release noted that the Board had called for better communication with elected officials in 2020, after Tropical Storm Isaias disrupted service for more than 1.3 million New Jersey utility customers in August of that year. Residents flagged the same communication gap this month.

Board also continued existing reliability case against JCP&L

JCP&L failed to meet minimum reliability standards in its Northern and Central regions for three consecutive years, according to the Order to Show Cause that the Board issued on August 13, 2025. In 2024, the company's Northern Region recorded a Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI) of 198.33 minutes against a Minimum Reliability Level (MRL) of 149 minutes. Its System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) hit 2.08 interruptions per customer against an MRL of 1.84 interruptions per customer per year. 

The Central Region also missed its SAIFI benchmark that year, and CAIDI worsened across the system, rising from 118.81 in 2022 to 147.3 in 2023 to 160.30 in 2024. The BPU order states that performance "continued to worsen each year." JCP&L reported that 2024 brought the highest outage rates across all categories in a decade: animal, equipment, lightning, other/unknown, tree and vehicle.

The Board's order cited an alleged violation of N.J.A.C. 14:5-8.2(a), as well as potential noncompliance with five additional reliability regulations, including N.J.A.C. 14:5-8.3(a), 8.3(b), 8.5(d), 8.6(a) and 8.6(a)(2). The formula under N.J.A.C. 14:5-8.10(a) sets the benchmark at the five-year average and the Minimum Reliability Level at the benchmark plus 1.5 standard deviations. 

JCP&L filed its annual system performance reports for 2022, 2023 and 2024 with the Board on May 31, 2023, May 31, 2024 and May 30, 2025. The company had previously won Board approval for three infrastructure programs: Reliability Plus in May 2019, the Reliability Improvement Program in February 2024 and EnergizeNJ in April 2025.

The August 2025 order required JCP&L to answer by September 10; the company filed its response October 10, according to FirstEnergy's quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In April 2026, BPU Staff recommended a $44 million penalty and asked to meet on a possible settlement, according to the same filing. JCP&L has pushed back, saying the fine was too large and challenging how BPU staff calculated it.

FirstEnergy, JCP&L’s parent company, directed $1.2 billion to JCP&L in 2025. It has outlined a $36 billion company-wide plan through 2030, even as the utility's reliability metrics worsened.

BPU President Ben Hertz-Shargel said at the Board's July 15 meeting that "New Jersey residents deserve safe, affordable, reliable electric service, and this proceeding reflects the Board's commitment to holding utilities accountable when they fail to meet our standards." He added that the BPU "will continue to closely scrutinize JCP&L's performance, take corrective actions, and use every tool available to defend utility customers across the state."

Hertz-Shargel also said, "We expect utilities to be prepared, communicate effectively, and restore service safely and as quickly as possible. When they fall short, the Board will hold them accountable."

Rate Counsel traced a history of underinvestment

The New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel previously found that JCP&L had pared back reliability and tree-trimming work from 2008 to 2010. The division's briefing reported that the utility sent $500 million back to parent FirstEnergy in 2011 as a return of capital and issued $500 million in new long-term debt in 2013. Rate Counsel added that JCP&L eventually recovered $736 million in storm costs from ratepayers through a February 24, 2014 stipulation. 

All electric utility companies in New Jersey must submit post-storm reports by approximately August 4. The reliability case now awaits the August 12 deadline. What happens after that depends on whether the Board treats three years of failure as a pattern or a passing storm.

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Sources

• FirstEnergy Corp., Investor Factbook (Feb. 17, 2026)

• FirstEnergy Corp., SEC Form 10-Q, Q1 2026

• Franklin Township (Somerset County), "JCP&L Storm Restoration Update to Elected Officials" (July 6, 2026)

• JCP&L, "Power restoration update" press release (July 6, 2026)

• JCP&L, "Storm release" press release (July 4, 2026)

• JCP&L, "Storm release" press release (July 5, 2026)

• Morristown Green, "Morris Plains rebounds after July 3 storms as JCP, Gov. Sherrill visits Morris comm center" (July 6–7, 2026)

• New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, "NJBPU Advances Proceeding to Hold JCP&L Accountable for Not Meeting Reliability Requirements" press release (July 15, 2026)

• New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, "NJBPU Issues Recommendations on Utilities' Responses to Tropical Storm Isaias Power Outages" press release (Nov. 18, 2020)

• New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Docket No. EO14020211, Order (March 19, 2015)

• New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Docket No. EO25070453, Order to Show Cause (Aug. 13, 2025)

• New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel, JCP&L 2011–2014 base rate case filings/brief (via NJ State Library digital archive)

• New Jersey Monitor, "NJ regulator orders probe into utilities' response to July 4th power outages" (July 15, 2026)

• NorthJersey.com, "Severe thunderstorms cause power outages in New Jersey" (July 4, 2026)

• WHYY, "New Jersey heat wave deaths dangerous health" (July 6, 2026)

• Yahoo Finance, FirstEnergy (FE) earnings data (July 2026)