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Alright, let’s talk about something that’s probably been making you wince every time you open your mailbox: your electricity bill. If you’re a New Jersey resident, you’ve probably noticed your monthly payments creeping up like a bad horror movie.
And Governor Mikie Sherrill? She’s finally saying what we’ve all been thinking—this has become an emergency.
The Numbers That Made Everyone’s Jaw Drop
Here’s the thing that really gets me: between mid-2023 and mid-2025, the average household electricity price in New Jersey jumped by more than a third. That’s not a typo. We’re not talking about a few dollars here and there—we’re talking about a massive spike that’s fundamentally changed how much it costs to keep the lights on, run the AC in summer, and, you know, live like it’s the 21st century.
Last summer alone, some customers saw their bills shoot up by 20%. And without someone stepping in to pump the brakes, experts were warning that prices would just keep climbing at what Sherrill’s office called an “extraordinary” pace.
So the governor declared what she’s calling an electricity affordability emergency. Bold? Maybe. Necessary? If you’ve looked at your bill lately, you already know the answer.
What’s Actually Going to Happen to Your Bill
Let’s cut through the bureaucratic noise and get to what matters: your wallet.
First up, if everything goes according to plan, you should see some credits appearing on your electric bill by July 1st. Think of it as the state’s way of saying, “Yeah, we know this hurts.” These credits are supposed to work similarly to the $100 in relief that regulators handed out last year.
The whole point here is to offset the increases in what’s called “supply charges”—basically, the cost of the actual electricity flowing into your home. These charges make up roughly half of what you pay each month, and they’re about to change again in June when regional auction results come in.
Brian Lipman, who heads up New Jersey’s Division of Rate Counsel (essentially the state’s advocate for utility customers), expects supply prices to either stay flat or tick up slightly this year. The credits Sherrill’s ordering should, in theory, keep your total bill from jumping even if supply costs rise.
But—and there’s always a but—if supply prices spike unexpectedly high, the state might not have enough money set aside to fully cover the difference. The funding is supposed to come from the same pot as last year: money from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and payments from electricity suppliers who don’t meet renewable energy standards.
The Rate Hike Pause That Might Not Actually Pause Anything
Here’s where things get interesting, and by interesting, I mean potentially complicated.
Your electric bill has two main parts: the supply charge (the electricity itself) and the delivery charge (getting that electricity to your house and maintaining all the infrastructure). While supply charges are set by regional market forces, delivery charges are where utility companies actually make their money.
Since utilities have a monopoly on delivering power to your home, they need permission from the state Board of Public Utilities whenever they want to raise these delivery rates. And Sherrill’s executive order tells the board to consider hitting pause on approving these rate hikes.
Right now, there’s a request from Rockland Electric Company sitting on the board’s desk asking to raise the typical household’s monthly bill by as much as $29. Twenty-nine dollars. That’s not pocket change—that’s a streaming service subscription, a tank of gas, groceries for a few days.
The question is: will the board actually freeze this and other similar requests?
The Credit Card Problem Nobody’s Talking About
Here’s what worries me, and what’s worrying some experts too: pausing rate hikes might just be kicking the can down the road.
Lipman, the customer advocate, compared it to putting expenses “on the credit card.” Think about it this way—if a utility company has legitimate infrastructure costs that need to be covered, the state can tell them “not this year,” but those costs don’t just disappear. The company is still legally entitled to recover money spent on replacing wires, upgrading equipment, and making improvements.
So what happens? One of two things: Either you get hit with a bigger increase next year to make up for the delay, or the state pays the utility interest on the delayed reimbursement. Either way, someone’s paying for it eventually—and that someone is probably you.
“That’s what I’m really concerned about,” Lipman said. And honestly? Same.
The Bigger Picture: Rethinking How This Whole System Works
Sherrill isn’t just slapping a Band-Aid on the problem and calling it a day. Her executive order also directs the Board of Public Utilities to study some pretty fundamental changes to how utilities operate in New Jersey.
Here’s how the current system works: Utilities make money based on how much they invest in infrastructure. For every dollar they spend building new poles, wires, substations, whatever—they make about $1.10 in their “rate base.” It’s a business model that literally incentivizes spending more money, which is… well, you can see the problem.
Sherrill wants the board to investigate switching to a performance-based model instead. Under this approach, utilities would earn profits based on how well they do their jobs—things like how quickly they connect new power generators to the grid or how efficiently they operate.
The order also asks regulators to look into reducing utilities’ profit margins or even having the state buy grid infrastructure using bonds, which would theoretically reduce the interest costs that get passed on to customers.
Abe Silverman, an energy consultant who used to work as general counsel at the Board of Public Utilities, thinks this could provide “immediate benefit” to ratepayers. Under a bond-funded model, customers would pay less in interest for infrastructure.
The “Be Careful What You Wish For” Warning
But—here’s that word again—not everyone thinks major structural changes are the answer.
Lipman, despite being a customer advocate, actually worries that messing too much with the utility business model could backfire. He argues that New Jersey’s current system, while not perfect, “works really well” for both customers and companies.
His concern? If you make it less profitable for utilities to invest in New Jersey’s infrastructure, they might take their money elsewhere. Other states are, as he put it, “more utility-friendly,” and if the profit incentive disappears, investment capital could follow it out the door.
It’s a valid point. Nobody wants crumbling infrastructure because companies decided it wasn’t worth maintaining New Jersey’s grid anymore.
The Data Center Elephant in the Room
One thing that’s driving some of these cost increases? Data centers. These massive facilities use enormous amounts of electricity—we’re talking about the kind of power consumption that can strain the entire regional grid. And their demand is part of what’s driving up those “capacity costs” I mentioned earlier.
Some lawmakers have proposed slapping surcharges on data centers to help fund grid modernization and offset their impact. It’s not part of Sherrill’s current order, but it’s definitely part of the larger conversation about energy costs in the state.
What Happens Next
The Board of Public Utilities has its marching orders, and utilities are being told to play nice. Representatives from PSE&G, Atlantic City Electric, and JCP&L all issued statements acknowledging the affordability crisis and saying they’re willing to work with the governor. (Though notably, none of them answered questions about what rate increases they’re planning to request this year.)
Within six months, we should see a report from the board on those bigger structural reforms. In the meantime, customers should watch their bills around July 1st for those credits.
But here’s the reality check: Lipman himself isn’t certain whether all of this will actually freeze electricity bills in the long run.
“We really need to be careful how we implement it,” he said.
My Take
Look, I get what Sherrill’s trying to do here, and the intention is good. When bills jump by a third in two years, that’s not sustainable for working families. People shouldn’t have to choose between keeping the lights on and buying groceries.
But I also can’t shake the feeling that some of these “solutions” might create new problems down the line. Pausing rate hikes sounds great until you realize you’re just delaying the inevitable—possibly with interest. Restructuring the entire utility business model sounds smart until companies decide to invest elsewhere and our infrastructure falls apart.
The truth is, there’s no easy fix here. Energy costs are rising for complex reasons—increased demand from data centers, the need for grid modernization, transitioning to cleaner energy sources, regional market pressures. You can’t just wave a magic wand and make all that go away.
What New Jersey needs is a sustainable long-term strategy that actually addresses the root causes of rising costs while keeping the lights on reliably. Quick fixes and emergency orders might help in the short term, but eventually, we need real solutions.
In the meantime, check your bills carefully, keep an eye on those July credits, and maybe start paying attention to those Board of Public Utilities meetings. Because whether we like it or not, decisions made in those boring regulatory proceedings have a direct line to our bank accounts.
And that’s something worth paying attention to.
