Widespread power outage in Monmouth County, NJ

A high-voltage transmission line problem left more than 20,000 JCP&L customers without power on Monday morning.

JCP&L spokesman Chris Hoening said that  Eatontown, Middletown and Tinton Falls were hardest hit by the outage. Outages also registered on the JCP&L map in Colts Neck, Manasquan, Sea Girt, Spring Lake Heights, Spring Lake Borough and Wall Township.

Hoenig said that the utility began the process of re-energizing high-voltage lines late Monday morning. Before sub-stations can be re-energized they have to first be inspected for any potential damage to circuits. As of 2 p.m. two sub-stations had been re-energized with three to go, according to Hoenig.

As of 2 p.m. 5,964 JCP&L customers are still without power mostly in Belmar, Manasquan and Wall Township.

Inspection before restoration

Hoenig said that each time a sub-station is restored a few thousand customers get their power back.

"The restoration is underway. The time for final restoration I don't have yet. It really depends on how quickly they get through those inspections. They've moving he crews from sub-station to sub-station to get the inspection done and get them re-energized," Hoenig said.

Many gas stations and restaurants along Route 35 in Eatontown were closed because of a lack of power.

It's a sense of deja vu for residents in Middletown who also lost power on Sunday morning. Fewer than 1,000 customers were affected at first.

"When we did some switching there was a burnt path on one of the poles which knocked out additional customers because were putting an additional load on the line," Hoenig said.

Dan Alexander is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at dan.alexander@townsquaremedia.com

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