The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has approved New Jersey Natural Gas’s request for an 8.9% reduction in customer bills, clearing the way for the savings to take effect Oct. 1, ahead of the 2026-2027 winter heating season.
The approval covers one of two filings NJNG submitted to the BPU in early June. BINJE previously reported that the utility proposed the bill cut — worth about $158 annually for the average residential customer — as part of a broader strategy that pairs near-term savings with a separate base rate case still working through the regulatory process.
That second filing, still pending, seeks recovery of approximately $950 million in system investments the company says are not yet reflected in current rates. The spending covers reliability and safety upgrades to NJNG’s 7,500-mile pipeline network, the Jamesburg Replacement Project in Monmouth County, the replacement of an aging customer-facing technology system, cybersecurity investments, and increased labor and healthcare costs.
NJNG has said it intentionally timed that base rate case for implementation near the end of the 2026-2027 winter period, when customer gas usage typically begins to decline. The company has projected that once both filings are fully implemented, the net effect will leave customer rates nearly flat compared to today.
With the bill-reduction piece now approved, the base rate case remains the outstanding half of NJNG’s two-part filing — the part that will determine whether the “nearly flat” promise holds once winter usage tapers off.
In August, JCP&L introduced a most unique rate case, one in which the utility itself would pay for the increased cost to customer (for a time), rather than just delaying them to 2028.
