Data included in testimony before state officials points to tree-related outages being responsible for more than 21 percent of outages during Superstorm Sandy.
View full sizeJCP&L spokesman Ron Morano on Monday disputed criticism before New Jersey officials of the company's tree-trimming efforts. Jersey Central Power & Light is disputing testimony offered from a state consultant last week alleging that the rising number of power outages in New Jersey in recent years may be connected to the company not trimming trees as efficiently as it should.
In testimony filed Friday with the state Office of Administrative Law, private consultant Peter Lanzalotta spoke on behalf of the state Division of Rate Counsel and claimed that a rise in tree-related power outages over the past several years was connected to the company's deferral of scheduled trimming.
"More aggressive distribution tree-trimming by JCP&L is needed, as well as fewer deferrals of cyclical trimming past their scheduled years," Lanzalotta testified.
Data included in the testimony point to tree-related outages being responsible for more than 21 percent of outages during Superstorm Sandy, a seemingly small figure compared to the 57 percent of outages blamed on trees during the October 2011 snowstorm. During Sandy, Lanzalotta testified, customer interruption for tree-related incidents lasted on average 58.6 hours.
Lanzalotta testified that JCP&L has deferred scheduled tree-trimming cycles over the past several years for reasons that include keeping costs low by skipping over circuits that had no recent tree-related reliability issues.
"Deferring tree-trimming, for whatever reason, tends to make the distribution system more vulnerable to major weather events," Lanzalotta testified, later noting: "Such deferrals increase the likelihood of tree-related customer interruptions during storms."
JCP&L spokesman Ron Morano on Monday called Lanzalotta's analysis flawed.
Morano said that Lanzalotta makes the claim that JCP&L spent $10.9 million on tree-trimming in 2012 and notes that the company's data point to it spending much more.
According to Morano and a data table that was included with Lanzalotta's testimony, JCP&L spent upwards of $26.7 million on "vegetation management," of which Morano said tree-trimming accounts for the bulk.
He called JCP&L "very proactive" in its upkeep of tree-trimming and other vegetation management.
"We're not sure of the source of the numbers that are quoted in that testimony," Morano said. "They are clearly inaccurate and inconsistent with the data we provided."
Morano said JCP&L is working to file rebuttal testimony.
When asked if Lanzalotta's testimony would hurt the company's pending request for a proposed 4.5 percent rate hike, Moran did not relate the two, just noting that it was an "ongoing process."
A representative of the state Board of Public Utilities did not immediately return a request for comment. The BPU will ultimately rule on JCP&L's rate hike request.