Jersey Central Power & Light proposes to raise customers' electric bills by 7.5% to cover the costs of upgrades and pay for damage caused by major storms.

The utility, which serves 1.1 million customers in 13 New Jersey counties including Monmouth and Ocean, has asked the state Board of Public Utilities for permission to raise $185 million through its base rate, which it uses to pay its expenses and make a profit.

If approved, a typical JCP&L residential customer, using 780 kilowatt hours per month would see a 7.5% percent increase in their bill, about $8.45 monthly.

This comes on top of a 4.8%, or $4.49, monthly increase, approved by state regulators last month for JCP&L for the cost of the electricity itself. It takes effect June 1. Utilities make no profit off the cost of the electricity, which changes annually, but instead through their base rates.

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Since regulators last reviewed the company's rates in 2020, JCP&L said it has made more than $794 million in investments to modernize and strengthen its electric grid, measures that help to reduce the size and duration of outages.

They include the installation of devices that sense an outage and automatically transfer customers onto an adjacent circuit to limit the number of customers that experience a long outage and upgrades to substations in Monmouth, Ocean and Mercer counties.

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JCP&L said it also wants customers to cover the utility's costs to repair damage from major storms such as 2020's Tropical Storm Isaias, the remnants of Hurricane Ida and winter storms in 2021. JCP&L said it has used proceeds from the sale of JCP&L's Yard Creek Pumped-Storage Generating Facility and taken other measures to reduce the balance.

"Our proposal balances our need to invest in a safe, reliable and modern grid while keeping rates affordable for our customers," Jim Fakult, president of New Jersey operations for FirstEnergy Corp., JCP&L's parent company, said in a statement.

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David P. Willis: dwillis@gannettnj.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: JCP&L wants to raise electric rates in 2023 by $185M