Every New Jersey homeowner has had the same moment in the last year or so: opening the electric bill, blinking, and checking whether the meter reader made a mistake. They didn't. Bills in this state jumped by double digits in mid-2025 and have stayed near record highs since.
This post puts real numbers on it. What the average household pays, how that breaks down by utility, why it happened, what the state is doing about it, and, since this is a solar company's blog, an honest look at how much of that bill a rooftop system actually removes.
The headline numbers
The most recent full-year federal data (from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, covering 2024) put the average New Jersey residential bill at about $128 a month, based on roughly 660 kilowatt-hours of monthly use at 19.3 cents per kWh. For comparison, the national average bill that year was $142, but only because the typical American home uses about 30 percent more electricity than the typical New Jersey home. On price per kilowatt-hour, New Jersey was already well above the national average.
Then 2025 happened.
What your utility's "typical bill" looks like now
Your utility doesn't generate the electricity it delivers. It buys it for you through a yearly state-run auction, and the results flow into bills every June 1. The February 2025 auction landed on the worst possible timing, right as the regional grid's "capacity" prices (what power plants get paid to promise they'll be available) spiked, and the June 2025 increases were brutal: PSE&G up about 17 percent, JCP&L up 20 percent, Atlantic City Electric up 17 percent.
The February 2026 auction came in roughly flat, helped by a cap regulators had placed on capacity prices in the meantime, which kept costs from climbing further. As of June 1, 2026, the utilities' published "typical" monthly bills (based on a modest household using roughly 650 kWh) are:
UtilityTypical monthly bill (June 2026)Change vs. 2025PSE&Gabout $180down 1.8%JCP&Labout $137up 1.6%Atlantic City Electricabout $202up 0.1%Rockland Electricabout $169down 0.7%
Two caveats. "Flat" after a 17 to 20 percent jump isn't relief; it's the new normal. And 650 kWh is a modest household. Services that pull real customer bills report New Jersey averages well above these figures because plenty of homes with central air, a pool pump, or an EV use 900 to 1,200 kWh a month. If that's you, your "typical" bill is closer to $250 or more.
Why bills jumped, in one paragraph
New Jersey sits inside the PJM regional grid, which runs its own annual auction to make sure enough power plants will be available in future years. Demand forecasts, driven heavily by data center growth, shot up faster than new power plants came online, and the 2025 auction cleared at record prices. Those costs pass straight through to the "supply" portion of your bill (the electricity itself, as opposed to "delivery," which is the cost of getting it to your house). Add transmission spending and rising delivery charges, and you get the year we just had. We covered the broader picture in NJ Electric Bills Are Rising Again.
What the state is doing about it
On her first day in office in January 2026, Governor Sherrill signed two executive orders: one declaring a utility affordability emergency and freezing supply-rate increases, the other pushing the state to bring new solar and storage online faster. Since then, the Board of Public Utilities and the Legislature have followed with:
- A $25 credit applied to every residential customer's bill in August 2026
- An additional $150 credit for low and moderate income households
- New laws signed in July that trim the guaranteed return utilities earn, require closer review of transmission spending, and, notably, create a separate rate class so that large data centers pay for their own grid upgrades rather than spreading the cost to households
Those steps help at the margins. They don't change the underlying direction of wholesale prices, which is why more New Jersey homeowners are looking at generating their own power.
How much of the bill can solar actually erase?
Here's the honest version, using PSE&G's typical customer as the example.
Your bill has two parts. The bulk is energy: the kilowatt-hours you use, priced at an all-in rate that works out to roughly 27 cents per kWh for a PSE&G customer once supply and delivery are combined. The small remainder is a fixed monthly customer charge that you pay no matter what, typically a few dollars a month depending on the utility.
Net metering credits you at that full retail rate. New Jersey still runs one-to-one net metering in 2026: every kilowatt-hour your panels send to the grid earns a credit worth the same as a kilowatt-hour you buy. Credits roll forward month to month, and once a year any leftover balance is paid out at the wholesale rate, only a few cents per kilowatt-hour, which is why systems are sized to your usage rather than oversized. (The full mechanics are in How Net Metering Works in New Jersey.)
Do the math for 650 kWh a month. That's about 7,800 kWh a year. A well-sited system of roughly 6 to 7 kW in New Jersey produces in that range, so a system sized to your usage can offset essentially all of the energy portion of the bill over a year: strong surpluses from April through September, drawing down the credits through the winter. What remains is the fixed customer charge and any small shortfall at the yearly settle-up.
What that looks like on the bill: a $180 PSE&G bill becomes something closer to the customer charge plus taxes and small regulatory fees, typically under $20 in a good month, with the summer overproduction covering the short winter days. Larger households see the same proportion at a bigger scale. The post-solar bill has its own quirks, which we walk through in Reading Your Post-Solar Electric Bill.
And there's a second income line. Every megawatt-hour a New Jersey system produces also earns an SREC-II incentive payment for 15 years, separate from the bill savings. Our SREC-II explainer covers the current rates, and SREC management is a service we handle for our customers so the paperwork never becomes their problem.
What solar doesn't fix
In the interest of honesty:
- The fixed charge stays. You're still a utility customer.
- Undersized systems leave a gap. If the roof only fits enough panels for 60 percent of your use, you'll offset 60 percent. Sizing is the whole ballgame, which is why we wrote How Many Solar Panels Does Your Home Actually Need.
- Usage creep. People who add an EV or a heat pump after going solar sometimes wonder why the bill came back. Circuit-level visibility from a SPAN smart panel is the easiest way to see exactly where the kilowatt-hours are going.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average electric bill in New Jersey?Federal data for the most recent full year put it at about $128 a month for roughly 660 kWh of use. After the June 2025 rate increases, utility "typical bills" for about 650 kWh now run from roughly $137 (JCP&L) to $202 (Atlantic City Electric), with PSE&G around $180.
Why did NJ electric bills go up so much in 2025?The annual power supply auction cleared at record prices, driven by a spike in what the regional grid pays power plants to stay available, itself tied to data center demand. Those costs passed through on June 1, 2025, raising bills 17 to 20 percent depending on the utility.
Are NJ electric rates going down in 2026?The June 2026 adjustments were roughly flat: slightly down for PSE&G and Rockland, slightly up for JCP&L and Atlantic City Electric. The state also issued a $25 universal bill credit in August 2026 and $150 for lower-income households.
Can solar panels eliminate my electric bill in NJ?Not entirely, but close. A system sized to your usage can offset essentially all of the energy portion through net metering, leaving the fixed customer charge and any small shortfall at the yearly settle-up. Bills under $20 a month are common for well-sized systems.
How does net metering work in New Jersey in 2026?Excess solar production earns credits at the full retail rate, which roll forward month to month. Once a year, any unused credits are paid out at the lower wholesale rate, so the sweet spot is a system sized to your annual usage.
See what your bill would look like with solar
We can run the numbers against your actual usage, not a state average. Request a free assessment and we'll show you what a right-sized system does to your specific bill.
