The state’s Board of Public Utilities worked with New Jersey’s four electric distribution companies to “smooth the impact” of an increase in electric rates that took effect June 1.
A measure approved by the board at their June 18 meeting will “move some of the costs out of the historically high July and August bill period,” according to BPU Executive Director Bob Brabston.
He explained to the board before the vote that they had “negotiated a settlement with utilities and rate council” to allow for $30 from each monthly bill in July and August to be deferred and spread out over the course of the following six months from September 2025 to February 2026.
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Brabston said bills can be as much as two to three times higher in the summer than they are in other parts of the year.
“This is not perfect but it does benefit all customers,” he said before explaining it’s part of an “overall rate mitigation plan” and he’s “hopeful other things will come later this summer.”
The state’s four electric distribution companies are Public Service Electric and Gas, Jersey Central Power and Light, Atlantic City Electric and Rockland Electric Company.
BPU Commissioner Zenon Christodoulou thanked the utilities for moving forward quickly but said that ultimately the agency has to do more to communicate with customers that the “only lever they have is to use less” energy.
“It is not perfect. There is no silver bullet here,” BPU President Christine Guhl-Sadovy said. “They’re outside of the control of this agency, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t all share some responsibility to help to reduce costs, particularly in these very, very high-usage months.”
Assistance for low income residents
The board also approved additional assistance for low income residents. It will provide $48.7 million for the Residential Energy Assistance Program to ratepayers eligible for winter-shutoff protections.
They will be applied as $25 credits over the course of seven months, from August 2025 to February 2026, for $175 of benefits in all. This program started last year as a one-time credit of $175 in August.
The BPU also increased the minimum for monthly utility credits in the Universal Service Fund from $5 to $20, and the maximum monthly credit from $180 to $200.
It is unclear which of these initiatives are part of the $430 million investment Gov. Phil Murphy announced on June 5 while flanked by Guhl-Sadovy and several Trenton lawmakers, but at Wednesday’s meeting, Guhl-Sadovy said the administration and the agency were “committed to addressing rising energy costs.”
Murphy’s program has not yet been approved by the agency. The governor called his plan “direct economic relief” to residents facing significant utility rate hikes this summer.
It would provide relief of at least $100 from every household’s energy bills and up to $250 from those most vulnerable.
The program for low- and moderate-income households will provide $150 in relief spread across bills from July through December, while everyone — including those receiving the $150 — will get $100 in “one or two payments when the bills are hurting the most,” Murphy said.
The money will come from the Clean Energy Fund, the BPU’s share of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the Solar Alternative Compliance Payment Fund.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ moves to ease electricity rate hikes during peak summer use