NJ Utility Wants 8.8 % Electric Rate Hike

Jersey Central Power & Light(JCP&L) is looking to hike customers' electricity bills by almost 9 percent, or an additional $170 per year.

The power company filed a rate proposal with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities that would increase base distribution rates to help recover deferred storm costs.

The proposal follows a rate hike freeze ordered by New Jersey Governor Mickie Sherrill.

On her first day in office on Jan. 20, she authorized the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to pause "any proceedings in which electric distribution utilities seek approvals for rate increases or cost recoveries."

The company said the filing includes proposed offsets so residential customers would not feel changes to base delivery rates in 2027.

According to JCP&L, the proposal includes a $253 million increase in base distribution rates and recovery of $476 million in previously deferred storm costs through a separate dedicated charge.

Rate Hike To Go Into Effect For 2028

The storm cost recovery charge would go into effect in January 2028 and would be spread over 10 years rather than collected over a shorter timeframe.

If approved, the average JCP&L customer would see a total bill increase of about 8.5 percent, with residential customers seeing an impact of about 8.8 percent.

For a typical residential customer using 767 kilowatt-hours of electricity and now paying $162.30 per month, that would mean an increase of $14.23 a month or an additional $170.76 a year.

While new base distribution rates would be effective May 6, 2027, the company said it plans to delay the impacts of those rates until January 2028.

JCP&L said the proposed offsets would equal the change in base delivery rates for residential customers in 2027.

The company described base delivery rates as the portion of the bill that pays for poles and wires, storm restoration and other delivery costs.

"Customers shouldn't have to choose between affordability and reliability. Our balanced approach puts both front-and-center simultaneously by minimizing the impact on bills today and giving customers time to plan, while continuing to invest in the infrastructure needed to deliver safe, reliable service for generations to come," said Doug Mokoid, FirstEnergy President of New Jersey.

Storm Recovery Costs

JCP&L said base rate filings allow utilities to recover the cost of upgrading infrastructure and restoring customers after storms.

The company said increasingly frequent severe storms pushed its deferred storm costs to $476 million before the July 3-6 storms.

JCP&L said it invested $1.5 billion in capital improvements over the past three years and reported reliability improved 15 percent in 2025 compared with 2024.

The company also said reliability has improved 38 percent so far this year. Its plan supports an additional $2.1 billion in base distribution investments as part of a larger five-year, $6.9 billion capital plan.

Trees remain a leading cause of outages in JCP&L's 3,200-square-mile service territory, according to the company.

JCP&L said ash trees have been responsible for 60 percent of tree-related outages since 2020, and the utility has removed more than 74,000 dead or diseased ash trees since 2017. The proposal is now before the BPU.