New Jersey households, newly burdened with higher electricity costs, will receive $100 to $250 credits from the state, parceled over six months, to help pay the bills, Governor Phil Murphy announced in Newark on June 5.
Typical households will receive $16.60 per month from July-December. Low- and moderate-income households will receive $41.60 per month.
The initiative comes after the average residential electricity bill rose about $20 a month starting June 1. That’s the result of higher prices at an annual energy supply auction by PJM Interconnection, a regional wholesaler to local utilities. PJM has said the grid is under pressure from sources including energy-hungry artificial intelligence data centers and renewed domestic manufacturing.
“As households across New Jersey begin to crank up the air conditioning and plug in their fans to stay cool in the summer heat, we know there is one concern that is top of mind for many, if not most: the rising cost of energy,” Murphy said.
The state expects to spend $430 million on the relief. The funding comes from three sources: the Clean Energy Fund, the Board of Public Utilities’ share of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) money and the Solar Alternative Compliance Payment Fund (SACPF).
“This is not going to solve our issues,” said Christine Guhl-Sadovy, president of the Board of Public Utilities, which announced the price increases in February. “We are just at a moment in time that if we can help people, it is our duty.”
Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, a Democrat from Woodbridge, said the new rates “simply weren’t fair.”
“That’s why we went to work immediately, not just to start to solve the immediate problem, which is what we’re doing here today, but to start the work on the long-term solution,” Coughlin said.
Earlier this week, the Senate passed legislation that would require the Board of Public Utilities to study the role of data centers in driving up the cost of electricity in the state, as well as another piece of legislation directing the BPU to investigate the recent energy auction by PJM Interconnection that established the higher rates.
