MANCHESTER – With a potential blizzard in the forecast for this weekend, Whiting residents are concerned that another power outage may hit their senior communities – just like how snowy weather caused last month’s outage.
As noted by Patricia Mullin, the vice president of Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) Operations, there is never a good time for people to experience a power outage. That is what drew a crowd of 30 residents to a special meeting held at Crestwood Village 5 Clubhouse, attended by JCP&L representatives and local township officials.
The forum was called for by Mayor Joseph Hankins to flesh out the details of why another power outage in Whiting took place in December in the same vicinity and around the same time of the year as one that occurred in 2024.
The meeting served as an opportunity for JCP&L staff to apologize to residents for the outage and to attempt to regain their trust, as well as report on their planned updates at a sub-station in Whiting that had been promised to be completed toward the end of 2025. The attendees included Hankins, his confidential aide Judy Noonan, Council Vice President James Vaccaro, Councilwoman Sandy Drake, Police Chief Antonio Ellis and Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Robert Sharry.
Bob Bryce who serves as JCP&L’s local engagement specialist noted that Manchester had updated its energy program “where they go out and find a supplier that replaces the Jersey Central Power & Light supplier. You are automatically enrolled in that unless you opted out back in October.”
“Judy (Noonan) is going to make office space available in town to our energy outreach people. They will probably be here every couple of weeks. If you have a need for energy outreach and assistance please go ahead and contact Judy and she will be able to tell you when they are available,” he added.
Bryce said he would be speaking on January 26 during the Manchester Coordinating Council meeting at 1:30 p.m. at Crestwood Village 5 Clubhouse. “I will be giving a more in-depth presentation about billing and the projects we have going.”
Noonan asked what was on the mind of many in the audience. “I’m sure everybody wants to know why the equipment failed when the power for 3,000 people went out (in December 2025). Why did they not anticipate there would be a pull on the energy within the community. Why did that equipment fail?”
JCP&L Director of Operations (Substations) Dennis Pavagadhi answered that question. “We have two distribution banks there (in Whiting), one that failed in 2024. This community had an outage on December 23 of 2024 and we brought a mobile in, we had a fleet of mobiles as an electric utility. Either the mobile (bank) or the mobile 1 that is there now can serve that load.”
Pavagadhi provided a technical explanation to the mechanics behind the power distribution noting that on December 26, 2025, the day after Christmas the mobile bank experienced issues “because of the weather we had.” A mobile device used to monitor the voltage that involves the transformer had a buildup of ice. “At roughly 10:30 p.m. we had about 3,600 customers out on two circuits and our control center with our engineering team had to pick up that load. I think we were able to pick up 1,000 customers by 1 a.m.”
“We worked systematically through it,” Pavagadhi added. “We have to open certain corporate devices that are set at certain amp levels and systematically bring up customers. At one point we had to do it in pockets of 100 customers.”
Sharry, the town’s Emergency Management Coordinator, noted that a warming shelter was set up for a short time that served to assist those without heat during that outage.
“I know we all want to be more informed about what is going on and I do want to mention that there is a program for people having problems with their bills,” Noonan said.
It was stated that there was an increase in data centers throughout the country and that they provide a strong drain on power grids. These data centers are built to handle artificial intelligence programs. JCP&L Senior Communication Representative Christopher Hoenig told The Manchester Times, “There is a pipeline process so we know in advance from studies to see what the drain will be on our capacity and if upgrades are needed.”
JCP&L Director, Engineering Harry Papademas added, “it really comes down to size. We’ll study an application and its size and make a determination where that power can be served, whether it be our distribution system or sub transmission system. If upgrades are necessary the customers are involved in that process. The cost for that the customer bares a portion of that.”
“Data Centers/AI, just like a development, are still customers. They require a greater load but there is a process. The way they receive their power may be different than a new residential development. They may be drawing straight from the transmission of the high voltage system rather than through the distribution of the neighborhood grid.”
“We have seen tremendous growth in Ocean County,” Hoenig added. “Tens of thousands of homeowners.”
“In a very short amount of time, we are working to accommodate for that,” Papademas added.
Council Vice President Vaccaro told The Manchester Times after the meeting, “The situation we had here was that we had no electric and no heat. Whiting was all electric since the 1960s. Nothing new has been added. The remedy is not with JCP&L. The remedy is at the state level.”
“They should come down here and be partners in the whole situation. Maybe some on the gubernatorial level and the BPU (Bureau of Public Utilities) and be one big cohesive team to resolve the issue at hand,” he suggested.
Resident Gail Apgar agreed that the state of New Jersey had a role to play in the problems being experienced and should have a literal seat at the table for future discussions at forums like the one that took place. She feels that wind and solar power projects aren’t sufficient enough in bringing enough additional power to the grid.
