14 hours Ago
By Anjuli Ramos-Busor New Jersey utility bills are already some of the highest in the nation, and they are about to get even higher. New Jerseyans want to power their homes and businesses with affordable and reliable energy, without the uncertainty of rising rates from year to year. It’s time to address the real cause behind rising rates with solutions that will keep costs down.
The current demand for electricity across our regional grid is rising at an unprecedented rate. With an increase in the number of data centers and manufacturing sites set to come online, our regional grid operator, PJM Interconnection (PJM), is rightly feeling the pressure of managing energy supply and demand. PJM is the entity that operates the power grid in our region, including 13 states and D.
C., and decides which power sources will supply our electricity. But PJM continues to double down on expensive, inefficient and outdated energy sources, which is driving up costs.
PJM even sent a letter to President Trump on behalf of fossil fuel companies asking for his help propping up aging coal plants in the region. Our regional grid is mostly dominated by fossil fuel and nuclear generation, with solar and wind only contributing about 6% as of the end of last year. Data shows that states that rely on natural gas for electricity generation – as New Jersey does – are among those with the highest rate of retail price increases [Report] .
As a matter of fact, New Jerseyans are already paying among the steepest rates in the country for their electricity, with the state’s average residential rate being more than 15% higher than the national average. In a new Synapse Energy Economics report released by Evergreen Collaborative, research indicates that PJM is set to spike electric bills almost 60% over the next 10 to 15 years. But if PJM clears its backlog as quickly as it should and reforms its process, electricity bills could fall by 20%, saving households and businesses hundreds of dollars a year.
In New Jersey, this would be an average of $405 a year per household in savings through 2040. The study also finds that New Jersey would see an average of 23,000 jobs created annually as a result of connecting these projects and reforming the queue. That’s real, tangible savings and jobs for families in New Jersey.
When it comes to adding low-cost clean sources of electricity to the grid, PJM is simply dragging its feet. Energy generators across the region continue to propose clean-energy projects to come online, such as wind and solar paired with battery storage, given their quick-to-build and cheaper development ; however, these are stuck in the PJM interconnection queue. Clean energy projects have been waiting an average of five years to be connected to the grid while fossil fuel projects continue to “skip the line.
” This delay jeopardizes the viability of the projects and is leading to significantly increased costs of electricity for New Jersey ratepayers. In response to the upcoming steep rate hikes in New Jersey and the region, Murphy and other states in the PJM grid have been calling on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to investigate whether PJM’s flawed processes have been subject to market manipulation. A balanced energy approach requires us to let the market build what it wants — more low-cost clean energy.
By doing that, and pairing it with PJM queue reforms, rising rates will minimize and New Jersey families’ power bills actually decrease by 7% below current levels in the long term. But if we leave it to business as usual at PJM, New Jerseyans’ power bills will increase by 60% in the same time period. As New Jersey considers state-level solutions to the pressing issue of rising electricity rates, we must see it for what it is: fossil fuels and PJM are no longer serving our wallets nor our state.
Anjuli Ramos-Busor is director of the New Jersey Sierra Club . Calling your elected representative in the state Assembly or Senate is the most effective way to influence policy. To find your state Assemblymember and Senator to voice your position, go to the New Jersey Legislature website’s Legislative Roster .
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