November 23, 2024

JCP&L is replacing an underwater high-voltage power line to enhance service reliability to New Jersey’s barrier islands.

Once in service, the new 34.5-kilovolt line will be one of four high-voltage power sources crossing the Barnegat Bay to serve more than 13,000 customers.

“The replacement of this high-voltage line offers service-enhancing redundancy into our barrier island system and delivers the power capacity that the local communities require when the population swells in the summer months,” said Doug Mokoid, President, FE New Jersey. “Completing this work in an innovative, environmentally sensitive manner is also important to us.”

A new 7,500-foot submarine cable will be installed using a special 12-ton sled that is designed to be environmentally friendly and cause minimal disruption to aquatic life. This sled, which is about the size of a school bus, will use water jets to create a trench. The jets will shoot water at a pressure of 150 pounds per square inch to create a trench that is one foot wide and more than 10 feet deep, allowing for the installation of the new cables.

A large barge will transport heavy reels of armored submarine cable and equipment while pulling the sled at speeds of up to 10 feet per minute. As the sled moves along the bay floor, the trench collapses behind it, leaving a shallow depression to mark the cable’s location.

The $12.5 million project is expected to be completed in mid-December.