Lakewood’s Explosive Growth Forces $108 Million Infrastructure Investment

Lakewood, NJ — Lakewood and its surrounding townships had more births per household than any other in the great state of New Jersey, leading to a strong growth in Ocean County, by nearly 30,000 residents from 2020-2024, according to Census estimates.

Because of this, Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L), a subsidiary of FirstEnergy, recently announced it will invest $108 million through 2028 to bolster the electric grid in rapidly growing Ocean County, New Jersey, led by the heavily Jewish communities in Lakewood, Toms River, and Jackson.

The company is updating the power system to make it more reliable, fix outages more quickly, and provide enough electricity to keep pace with the county’s surging energy demands.

JCP&L reported that in the past year, county businesses and developers have applied for more than 50 megawatts (MW) of new connections – enough to power approximately 50,000 homes.

“Ocean County is growing at a pace that traditional forecasting formulas can’t keep up with,” Doug Mokoid, FirstEnergy’s President, New Jersey, said. “We’re taking a fresh approach to improving reliability now and meeting power demand for years to come.”

More Power, System Upgrades in 2025

An initial $21 million in upgrades will be completed in Ocean County this year. Work includes adding two new transformers and upgrading an existing transformer at a local substation to provide more electricity for the area.

Some of the new electricity will power new homes and businesses. If there’s a power outage, the increased power will also help JCP&L get customers’ electricity back on more quickly by switching them to another line while the problem is fixed.

Along with adding more power, JCP&L said it is upgrading power lines to make them stronger, especially during bad weather. Area projects include:

• Lakewood: Replacing more than three miles of lines on South Hope Chapel Rd., Brook Rd. and Ocean Ave. with new, larger wire and adding extra underground wires in the Leisure Village community.
• Jackson: Upgrading to larger wire along South Hope Chapel Rd. and Brewers Bridge Rd. and adding a new line near Six Flags Great Adventure. This will help JCP&L quickly reroute power around trouble areas during an outage and reduce the number of customers affected. New devices will also be installed that can automatically transfer customers in the northeastern portion of town to unaffected lines during an outage.
• Toms River: Relocating existing equipment north of Route 37 to safer locations, helping prevent outages and allow faster repairs. Installation of devices that can automatically switch service to another line if there’s a problem will make power more reliable for customers in the Leisure Village area, the southwestern portion of town, Manchester and Lakehurst.

Additional Local Investments Through 2028

JCP&L will invest an additional $29 million in Ocean County from 2026 to 2028 as part of its New Jersey Reliability Improvement Project, a two-phase effort to enhance the reliability of lines with a history of outages. These investments will include thicker, stronger wires and poles and additional protective and automatic transfer devices in Lakehurst, Manchester, Berkeley and Lacey townships.

Another $58 million in Ocean County upgrades are planned through 2028 as part “EnergizeNJ,” JCP&L’s three-and-a-half-year infrastructure investment program. Approved by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) in April 2025, “EnergizeNJ” supports system resiliency and grid and substation modernization. Planned work includes:

• Adding new power lines to reduce the number of customers affected by outages
• Installing more than 200 new “TripSaver” devices that can automatically restore power caused by temporary conditions (such as tree branches bouncing off lines)
• Adding more automatic transfer devices
• Modernizing substation equipment
• Replacing substation equipment at coastal substations susceptible to salt

Part of a Bigger Plan 

The bigger plan, according to the energy company, is to have a smarter, more secure grid that meets the needs of today’s customers and tomorrow’s growth. JCP&L’s New Jersey Reliability Improvement Project and EnergizeNJ are part of Energize365, FirstEnergy’s long-term investment program to modernize the electric grid. FirstEnergy plans to invest $28 billion through Energize365 between 2025 and 2029.