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NJ utility fined $44.1M after July outage
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2026-07-26 17:19 UTC → 2026-07-27 02:20 UTC ·
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New Jersey NJ utility fined $44.1M after July outage and fine
In early July 2026, 2026 a line of powerful thunderstorms swept through the Mid‑Atlantic, knocking out power for hundreds of thousands of customers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) reported that roughly 200,000 of its customers lost electricity, with about 121,000 still without service three days after the storm. Utilities mobilized crews, mutual‑aid assistance and smart‑meter technology to locate and repair faults while urging residents to report outages. Following the event, New Jersey regulators subsequently moved to penalize JCP&L. The Board of Public Utilities announced a $44.1 million fine civil penalty for the utility’s failure to meet baseline reliability benchmarks for 2022‑2024 and for its handling of the July 3 storms. The penalty, fine is calculated at $25,000 for the first day of a each violation and $50,000 for each additional day, reflects criticism with a public‑participation deadline of Aug. 12. A follow‑up release on July 25 confirmed the fine and expanded the impact figures: the storm knocked out power to roughly 300,000 customers, and about 40,000 remained without service three days later. Federal data cited in the Asbury Park Press showed JCP&L customers in 2024 suffered an average of 2.5 prolonged outages (over three hours) compared with 0.6 for nearby Public Service Electric & Gas (PSE&G). Regulators noted that JCP&L had not hardened its grid and had diverted been warned, even before Superstorm Sandy, for diverting rate‑payer funds to its parent company. The fine’s public‑participation deadline is set for August 12, marking the regulatory response to the outage’s aftermath. rather than investing in grid hardening.
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- 2026-07-27 02:20 UTC NJ utility fined $44.1M after July outage
- 2026-07-26 17:19 UTC New Jersey utility outage and fine
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