New Jersey Electricity Rates per kWh: Why the Price Changes Every June

One cheap auction is still holding down New Jersey bills. It was held in 2024, at about 8¢, and it drops out of the price on 1 June 2027. Even if the next auction matches 2026 exactly, the blended price rises by about a cent.

Three auctions sit inside every BGS price

New Jersey does not buy a home’s power all at once. Each February the state’s Basic Generation Service auction buys about one third of the supply for the next three years, so the price from 1 June is a blend of three auctions. Here are the closing prices the Board of Public Utilities reported for the residential and small commercial product.

Read across the rows and the story is plain. One cheap year, followed by two expensive ones. That 2024 block is still holding bills down, and it has one more year to run.

What June 2027 looks like if nothing changes

The cheap 2024 block drops out on 1 June 2027. Whatever the February 2027 auction clears at replaces it. Suppose it merely repeats the 2026 price, with no rise at all. The blend still climbs, because a roughly 8¢ block gets swapped for a roughly 11¢ one.

This is our arithmetic on the board’s auction prices, not a forecast. The real February result could land above or below last year’s. Bills also include transmission, delivery and other charges, and those move on their own. The figure to watch is the auction closing price published in February 2027.

If the auction falls, the ladder works in your favour too. A drop of 1¢ reaches bills as only about a third of a cent in the first year.

June 2026: nearly flat, and $64 apart

When the 2026 results came in, the board expected the typical 650 kWh monthly bill to barely move on 1 June. The bigger message is the distance between companies.

Atlantic City Electric’s home pays $64.29 more than JCP&L’s for the same 650 kWh. Those two auction prices are 0.05¢ apart, so the gap comes almost entirely from delivery and other charges. Over 2025, Atlantic City Electric’s supplier customers paid 10.58¢ per kWh for delivery, more than twice JCP&L’s 4.90¢.

— in the last two columns: the utility reported no homes on delivery-only service to EIA for 2025, so none of its homes bought power from a supplier. It is a city utility, public district or co-op.

EIA-861 for 2025: each utility’s revenue from homes divided by the kWh they used, so monthly charges are spread into the price.

On all-in prices, 2025 BGS customers paid 18.39¢ on JCP&L, 25.03¢ on PSE&G and 25.84¢ on Atlantic City Electric.

Check a BGS bill or a supplier quote

Enter a quoted rate in the supply price and pick your utility for delivery; enter your own BGS price to check the bill you already get. Run it twice if a contract crosses 1 June.

July cost over twice what April did

No part of the year stings like this one. The average home paid $110 in April 2026 and $261 in July, and $109 in October. Usage more than doubled, from 469 kWh to 1,036 kWh. The price rose too, from 23.53¢ to 25.19¢, even though the board expected little yearly change. A higher summer price at most utilities is the likely reason, so a summer bill can overstate what happened to the annual rate.

The August figure also shows the state’s credit at work. A Board order of 30 June 2026 gave households one flat $25 Residential Universal Bill Credit in August, funded with $170.8 million from the state’s clean energy and alternative compliance funds. In 2025 there were two $50 credits, so this year’s help was a quarter of last year’s. Past credits are no promise of the next one.

Few homes switch, and they paid more in 2025

The 224,349 homes on a supplier paid 24.03¢ per kWh in 2025, against 21.76¢ at BGS: $180 more each over the year. Town aggregation sits inside that figure, so single contracts may have done worse.

Worked out from EIA-861 for 2025: suppliers’ revenue from homes plus the utilities’ delivery-only revenue, divided by the kWh, against the same kWh at each utility’s default-service price per kWh. Aggregation programmes count as suppliers. The averages hide wide differences between contracts.

A fair test for the next year or two is awkward, because BGS is the moving target. A 12-month fixed deal signed now straddles the June 2027 change, and a good one has to beat the blend on both sides of it. Ask for the price, length and end-of-term rate in writing. Door-to-door and phone sales are licensed by the board, and complaints go to it too.

EIA-861 for 2025, Sales to Ultimate Customers (residential): every utility, supplier and retail provider’s own report.

Steps, not slopes

The series looks like a staircase because of the once-a-year reset. It went from 16.57¢ in 2010 to 23.74¢ over the last 12 months, 43% higher, and June 2025 brought the steepest rise, about 22% in a month, when PJM’s capacity prices reached the auction.

Between New York and Pennsylvania

New Jersey comes 2nd of 3 in the Middle Atlantic, and 32% above the US average over the last 12 months. Modest use keeps the typical bill 21st of 51.

Across the border: Delaware 17.98¢, Pennsylvania 20.86¢, New York 28.60¢.

All 50 states and DC on one page, with a map.

What the illustration assumes

The blend is a simple average of three closing prices for each utility; the auctions cover the residential and small commercial product, and retail prices also carry losses, seasonal shaping and other items. We applied the difference to 650 kWh, the board’s own bill example, and made no change for season or transmission. The February 2026 figures are the board’s forecasts for the bills it published, and the real average varies.

Figures to August 2026 (EIA marks recent months preliminary), utility figures for 2025, refreshed 3 November 2026. How every number in this series is made and checked.

• New Jersey, every month since 2010 (CSV): price per kWh, kWh and bill per home, and the US price.
• Every state, DC and the US (CSV)
• Everything above with the utility and supplier figures (JSON)

EIA data is in the public domain: credit the U.S. Energy Information Administration. A link back is welcome.

Questions

Electricity rates in other states

Version history

• 2.0 (6 November 2026): rebuilt around the three-auction ladder: closing prices by utility, an illustration of June 2027, the $64 gap between utilities at 650 kWh, and the 2026 bill credit.
• 1.0.1 (November 2026): wording and page heading tidied; no figures changed.
• 1.0 (November 2026): first published.