New Jersey families already know what their bills say. Beginning in the summer of 2025, households saw electricity bills increase by 17-20 percent, and they remain elevated today. New Jersey does not control the regional capacity market, where a growing share of recent electricity cost increases have originated.
That regional market — run by the PJM Interconnection, the electric grid operator covering 13 states and the District of Columbia — sets the wholesale price of electricity, which flows onto ratepayers’ bills. Factors outside of New Jersey’s control have seen inflated prices from PJM, and there is unlikely to be relief in the short term.
Demand from data centers, electrification, and industrial growth continues to outpace the addition of new generating resources across the PJM region. Until more supply is brought online, the upward pressure on wholesale prices is likely to continue. New Jersey did not create this challenge alone, but it can take steps to lessen its impact on ratepayers.
Battery storage can be a solution.
Battery energy storage is one of the best tools New Jersey can use today to fight back against these rising costs. Batteries store cheaper, off-peak electricity and discharge it when demand spikes and prices rise. They reduce reliance on the expensive natural gas “peaker” plants that drive up electricity prices when they’re called into service during high-demand hours.
More importantly, storage adds desperately needed capacity to a regional market that does not have enough of it. Every battery project that comes online strengthens reliability, reduces the need for expensive emergency resources, and helps put downward pressure on the capacity prices that have hammered New Jersey ratepayers recently. If high prices are being driven by a shortage of supply, adding more supply is part of the solution.
The state already knows this. In June 2025, the Board of Public Utilities established the Garden State Energy Storage Program (GSESP), targeting at least 1,000 MW of transmission-scale energy storage through competitive solicitations — part of New Jersey’s broader “2,000 MW by 2030” mandate.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill, on her first day in office, signed executive orders declaring a utility affordability emergency and directing the BPU to accelerate that work.
In March this year, the BPU awarded its first tranche of GSESP projects — selected through a competitive process for the most cost-effective options. Those projects are expected to generate more than $169 million in ratepayer savings over the life of the program, funded through existing charges; no new rate increase required.
The BPU then opened a second solicitation for an additional 645 MW of capacity within 45 days, as Gov. Sherrill directed.
New Jersey just made it easier to cut through one of the most consistent bottlenecks in the industry.
The first awarded battery energy storage projects should come online around 2028 and help lower prices by 2029. That timeline is not long. But it only holds if the remaining tranches of the 2,000 MW target move on schedule.
New Jersey has laid the groundwork and has the state government pushing for action. What it cannot afford is a slowdown in follow-through. PJM’s next capacity auction will not wait. The supply shortage driving those prices will not resolve itself. And the temporary price cap that softened the December 2025 results is not a permanent fix — it is a ceiling that will eventually give way to market pressure.
Battery storage is New Jersey’s answer to a market it cannot reform from the outside. Every megawatt procured under the Garden State Energy Storage Program is in-state storage capacity that reduces the state’s exposure to PJM’s price swings. Every tranche that slips off the schedule is storage capacity that won’t be there when the next auction settles.
New Jersey families have shouldered billions of dollars in rising electricity costs as the regional market struggles to add new supply and keep pace with growing demand. The state responded with a target, a procurement program, and a governor who made affordability her first order of business.
New Jersey has a 2 GW storage goal; we’ve already taken care of 1,000 MW. We need to make sure the next batch of storage projects is connected to the transmission line to maximize their impact on lowering ratepayers’ bills. The BPU has the authority and the mandate to see this through.
Paulina O’Connor is the New Jersey Director of MAREC Action, a Mid-Atlantic clean-energy advocacy group
