JACKSON – A representative of Jersey Central Power & Light explained a 20% utility bill increase that rate payers across the state will see this month during a recent Township Council meeting.
Robert Bryce, the Regional External Affairs Coordinator for JCP&L had a PowerPoint presentation that showed what residents would see concerning the fee increase on their June 1 bills. “It’s important to realize that there are two charges on your bill. One is generation. One is distribution.”
“JCP&L is a distribution company only,” Bryce stressed. He noted that New Jersey was one of the states that deregulated utilities in 1999 separating generation and distribution. “JCP&L can no longer be involved in the generation of power. It is totally separate. We are the delivery people.”
He compared his firm to an Uber delivery service and the generation company as “the restaurant that makes the food.” Bryce noted JCP&L’s last increase was four years ago at 3.6%. This kicked in June of 2024 following a rate case hearing with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU).
Bryce said that increase was deemed reasonable by the BPU who approved it.
“We don’t have an increase this year.” He said there were several basic service increases in generation that was determined by a wholesale auction that the BPU oversees for the generation costs.
“Generation costs are administered by a company called PJM – Pennsylvania, Jersey, Maryland – but it oversees more than that, 13 states and the District of Columbia,” Bryce added. The firm serves over 70 million residents. “They oversee the preparation of the bid to the Board of Public Utilities for the wholesale auction.”
He explained that last year there was an increase that resulted in a “seven percent increase.”
“On a total bill?” Council President Jennifer Kuhn asked.
Bryce answered “yes.”
“That’s a lot. You are saying you are the Uber driver for electric. There is a high fee for the Uber driver so that is why you don’t use Uber,” Kuhn replied.
“So, bad example,” Bryce responded.
“You don’t want to be an Uber driver. I would want to just drive myself and save that fee. Last year there was a fee, this year there is a fee,” she noted.
“Our increase in a delivery charge was 3.6% last year,” Bryce repeated. He noted an 8.7% increase in generation cost on June 1 as well last year. “What is going to happen this year on June 1 is a 19.9% increase that all goes to the basic generation.”
Bryce stated, “these two charges that you see – the 8.7% and 19.9% – are going to combine June 1 for a 32.2% increase since last June in the electric bill. JCP&L is only responsible for 3.6% or a little over 10% of that charge. The rest of it is a pass through. We see nothing from that, we just collect it for the basic generation services.”
Keeping up with the comparison scenario, Kuhn asked if customers could keep JCP&L as their Uber driver but be able to shop around for a different restaurant. “So, you just went back to being cheap so I’ll use Uber and I’m not driving myself. If I shop around and use a three star restaurant I’m still going to get the same electric that I’d get from a five star. I’m just using a different provider, correct?”
“Yes, what our charge is, is a default charge if someone chooses not to go to a third party,” Bryce said. “We can’t recommend if a person does or doesn’t go to a third-party provider but what we do is tell them is to do their due diligence,” the representative responded.
He said, “there are good ones out there and there are bad ones out there. The first one I’d recommend is someone that you already know someone is with. We are starting to hear right now because sharks are already in the water, that there are a lot of people coming out of the woodwork. A lot of people are complaining about getting unsolicited calls.”
“Make sure you are going with someone who is reputable. We can’t tell you who to go to,” Bryce added.
He recommended customers “watch introductory rates and look for terms of the contract. Don’t sign in to a real long contract. Find someone who has had a good experience with the company for a long term.”
“Watch out for fees because they may have certain charges. Find out what the monthly fee is and go with that,” he added.
He explained municipal aggregation where towns have gone out “soliciting fees from providers. Towns are not getting any success lately finding anything cheaper than the default charge that we have. Manchester just went through it two years in a row.”
“They had it for many years. It expired at the end of 2023. They tried in 2024 to get a new bid and I believe this year they did too. Plumsted did, too. They had municipal aggregation but again they are not using it because they are not finding a cheaper service out there,” Bryce said.
Councilman Guisseppe Palmeri asked “who is JCP&L’s main supplier of electricity?”
Bryce replied, “we get it all from the wholesale auction through PJN who has many different providers and generation companies.” That includes nuclear, coal, gas turbine and hydroelectric. “Demand for electricity is going up for electric vehicles and data centers but the supply is going down and the reason for that is a lot of plants are going off line. A lot of them are ending their useful life.”
