JCP&L Tree-Trimming Hopes to Reduce Outages in Morris County

Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) is continuing work on a $24 million vegetation maintenance program aimed at improving service reliability and decreasing outages, with tree-trimming scheduled to continue in parts of Morris County this month.

The company announced that the work will continue along 300 miles of the state in February, including in Chatham, Montville, Lincoln Park, Flanders, Chester, Mendham, Morristown, Riverdale, Oak Ridge, Pompton Plains, Dover, Randolph, Rockaway, Succasunna and Kenvil. In January of this year, work commenced on 410 miles, including Parsippany and parts of Dover as well as southern areas of the state.

"The vegetation management program is an important component of our annual investment in infrastructure to deliver reliable service to customers," JCP&L President Don Lynch said. "The severe weather events that our region has experienced over the past few years have heightened everyone's awareness about how trees impact electric infrastructure and the potential dangerous conditions that can result when trees and power lines touch."

Certified forestry contractors are doing the work as part of the program. Additionally, JCP&L regularly trims trees and completes a full vegetation maintainence check on areas along distribution lines every four years. Diseased trees or those that could be dangerous near power lines are removed.