upgrades

Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) completed upgrades on 16 major circuits serving more than 30,000 customers in the counties of Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex and Warren. The upgrades included installing more resilient polymer fuses, adding larger 10-foot cross-arms to increase wire clearance, and installing fault indicators that help identify problem areas on a circuit which helps speed the restoration process if an outage occurs.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District obtained a 50-year renewal to operate its hydroelectric projects on the upper American River. The utility operates 11 reservoirs and eight powerhouses in the upper American, which generate 688 MW of electricity, representing about 15 percent of SMUD’s annual power. Part of the new license from FERC calls for SMUD to make some changes. The utility will make several recreational upgrades to reservoirs and it will increase the volume of water it releases into streams.

CB&I awarded contract orders by Entergy Operations valued in excess of $100 million for project and construction management services related to the implementation of Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) ordered modifications and upgrades at multiple nuclear energy facilities throughout the U.S. Since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear incident in 2011, the NRC has required U.S.

Mon Power, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy, installed new conductors near Morgantown on a 138,000-volt transmission line to handle future load growth in the Monongalia County area. The $5 million project includes three phases, with all the work occurring on existing right-of-way. The transmission line upgrade is expected to be completed before year's end.

PJM approved a $1.2 billion 345-kV double-circuit transmission investment designed to resolve short-circuit concerns in northern New Jersey.

The PJM Interconnection board of managers authorized $1.2 billion in upgrades and improvements to the high-voltage electric transmission system that serves the Mid-Atlantic and all or parts of other states between the Mid-Atlantic and Chicago, Ill.