JCP&L: Oil Spill Cause of Thursday Blast

A JCP&L representative came before Town Council on Tuesday to discuss

Representative Stan Prater and Don Richards, an engineer, told the town and public that oil used for insulating purposes in the transformer had spilled onto the transformer, causing wire and rubber insulation to burn, which resulted in black smoke shortly after 4 p.m. on June 9. 

Power to most of the 1,700 customers affected was restored by late Friday night. Walgreens, Rite Aid and Coldwell Banker, which had been without power since the fire, had power restored by 10 p.m. Saturday.

Prater said inspection records of the substation from a couple months ago did not indicate anything unusual with the transformer affected. Despite temperatures reaching near 100 degrees on Thursday and electrical usage higher than normal, Prater said the transformer had been at only 33 percent load at the time of failure, and that it was designed to run at full capacity, and even beyond that for a short amount of time. "[Overusage] is not even an issue," he said.

According to Richards, a separate compartment on the side of the tank where the substation equipment is located houses 10 gallons of oil to "provide a transition point" for high voltage cable connections. While there are two transformers in the South Street substation, only one was affected, he said.

Prater told the council that the State Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has asked to be kept in the loop about the investigation into how to prevent such incidents from happening again. Power from the two transformers in the vault is currently being rerouted, and JCP&L is expected to remove both by the end of the week. The failed transformer is expected to be examined by the end of the month, and Prater said both the town and BPU would be kept in the loop regarding JCP&L's findings.

Later, Prater indicated this recent incident was not related to the library explosion last year. In that incident, Prater said, "we believe we had nothing to do with the explosion," citing a possible "combustible gas" that caused that explosion. He said a very good indication of "some type of clean accelerant" being the cause of that explosion was that there was no thick black smoke in the library explosion, like there was last week. "That is a very good indication," Prater said.

The library investigation is currently being lead by Traveller's Insurance, not by JCP&L, Prater said. 

About 50 underground transformers presently service Morristown, Richards said. A draft of an initial report on Morristown's overall network was expected to be completed by the end of this week, which would also be submitted to Mayor Tim Dougherty and the BPU, Richards said.

Unlike after previous incidents, Dougherty said he was pleased that JCP&L had come before the town so quickly to offer up as much explanation as they could.

"I am very satisfied with their response and willingness to work with the council, town and BPU," he said. "We're all waiting for answers for what happened to the library. ... We will have an answer."