Trenton, NJ–October 15, 2026–The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) has granted New Jersey Citizen Action Education Fund (NJCAEF), Environment New Jersey, NJPIRG Citizen Lobby, and Vote Solar the right to intervene in a proceeding to hold Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L), New Jersey’s second largest electric utility, accountable for failure to meet the state’s Minimum Reliability Levels for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024.

The NJBPU is taking enforcement action over the company’s past storm response performance and related outages affecting hundreds of thousands of customers over this time period. NJBPU staff recommended a $44.1 million penalty. JCP&L filed an appeal in April disagreeing with the amount of the fine. In response, the NJBPU established an adjudicated process to involve interested intervenors who represent the diverse experiences and priorities of impacted New Jersey communities.

The proceeding to review the penalty and hold the Company accountable comes at a time when the Company is also seeking approval from NJBPU to increase customer rates, largely to pay for infrastructure upgrades and storm recovery costs. According to the U.S. Congressional Joint Economic Committee, last year New Jersey’s utility bills spiked more than any other state in the country, save Washington D.C.

The intervenors in this proceeding, represented by NJ Appleseed Public Interest Law Center, are jointly advocating for corrective actions to ensure the Company pursues the most cost effective approaches to urgently improve grid reliability. This includes due consideration of clean energy solutions to quickly meet the utility's reliability needs at lower cost than traditional grid upgrades, and provide protective measures from rising energy prices.

“When hundreds of thousands are paying more while languishing through regular blackouts, we have to interrogate how utilities are investing in their grids,” said Abe Scarr, Energy and Utilities Director of NJPIRG Citizen Lobby. “Too often, utilities choose more expensive investments to boost profits instead of smarter, more cost effective solutions to meet reliability needs.”

“Based on our research, nearly every month of 2026 has seen thousands of New Jersey customers lose power, and more often than not, these outages have disproportionately happened in JCP&L territory. The reliability problems in years past persist, and outages are happening during life-threatening extreme weather events when customers need reliable service the most,” said Doug O’Malley, Director of Environment New Jersey. “We need solutions that can quickly improve the lives of JCP&L customers, do so in the most cost effective manner, and protect JCP&L’s large contingent of rural and coastal customers from the growing extreme weather impacts of the climate crisis.”

“A previous audit found that JCP&L’s holding company FirstEnergy withdrew half a billion dollars of money intended for grid investment right before Hurricane Sandy hit. The year of Hurricane Sandy, millions more were taken out of the state to pay FirstEnergy’s shareholders instead of improving the grid,” said Dena Mottola Jaborska, Executive Director of NJCAEF and NJ Citizen Action (NJCA). “We need to make sure the price paid for this potential pattern of neglect doesn't unfairly fall on customers, but on the shareholders who may have extracted wealth from our state while leaving communities behind.”

“We know from evidence around the country and the world that clean energy solutions often provide grid reliability far more quickly and at far lower cost than the outdated and expensive large-scale infrastructure utility companies tend to prefer. This preference isn’t coincidental. Building large infrastructure enriches utility shareholders while cheaper clean energy solutions don’t,” says Kartik Amarnath, Mid-Atlantic Regulatory Director at Vote Solar. “We are intervening in this case to make sure the utility’s corrective actions to improve reliability are not cover for enriching shareholders while cheaper and more efficient options are available.”