New Jersey ratepayers will get a credit of at least a $25 next month, with the promise of more savings to come from new laws and policy changes, Gov. Mikie Sherrill said Tuesday.
In all, 3.6 million ratepayers are due the August credit, while low-income families will receive an additional $150 through the Residential Energy Assistance Payment program, Sherrill said. Three laws she signed will reduce electricity transmission rates by $60 million, require approval for some utilities projects and force artificial intelligence data centers to pay a separate rate for power.
The legislation will “help us take control of our energy future and save you money,” Sherrill said at the Woodstown home of Aileen Bailey, mother of Assemblyman Dave Bailey (D-Gloucester), one of the sponsors.
The regional grid that services New Jersey was taxed last week by record-setting heat. Strong weekend thunderstorms then left more than 500,000 people powerless, and about 10% of them remained without electricity on Tuesday.
Sherrill, who made energy policy a key part of her campaign last year, said the legislation and policy changes were in response to the average 20% bill increases that New Jerseyans started paying in June 2025. Utilities, meanwhile, are forced to meet increasing demand from data centers that depend on vast amounts of energy while U.S. power plant construction has waned. The result is higher consumer prices and a less reliable grid.
The first new law directs the state Board of Public Utilities to create a rate structure for large load data centers, or those that draw at least 50 megawatts of power monthly — enough to supply roughly 15,000-25,000 homes. The law will relieve average ratepayers of some costs for infrastructure improvements. Sherrill and the law’s sponsors said they hope it also will prompt data center operators to provide their own clean energy.
The second law mandates utility membership in PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator that includes New Jersey and all or part of a dozen other states. That will remove the utilities’ ability to add $60 million — what Sherrill called “free money” — in transmission charges billed to customers annually.
“Grid membership is the bare minimum and companies shouldn’t be getting handouts for it,” Sherrill said.
The final bill signed Tuesday requires state oversight of supplemental transmission projects — such as battery storage, substation construction and line upgrades — and allows fast-tracking of such initiatives. Sherrill said that will cut “wasteful spending” by utilities that were allowed to “build what and how they saw fit, with no state oversight of whether it was the right thing to build.”
“This package will slow rising electricity costs, hold utilities accountable and deliver savings New Jersey families will feel right away, while putting in place long-term reforms to modernize the grid and make the energy system cleaner,” said Eric Miller, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regional director of Evergreen Action, a nonprofit that advocates for policies to combat climate change.
When Sherrill took office in January she signed two executive orders declaring an energy emergency and essentially freezing electricity rates. In April, Sherrill signed legislation to lift rules on radioactive fuel storage, a step that is expected to encourage nuclear energy development.
Other energy-related measures approved by lawmakers are awaiting action by Sherrill. They include a bill requiring data centers to submit semiannual electricity and water usage reports to the Board of Public Utilities; legislation eliminating $250 million in tax credits available to those facilities; a bill with incentives for new nuclear power providers; and a measure allowing plug-in solar panels, typically on apartment balconies or in residential yards, to offset some power provided by utilities.
