Utility Assistance By Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul

By Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul

Assemblywomen Luanne Peterpaul and Margie Donlon

As our nation and the world wrestle with spiking gasoline and utility prices caused by the war in Iran, we want residents to know that we have been working to maintain control over what consumers here pay in their monthly bills.

We’re proud to report that two of our bills addressing the high cost of utilities in New Jersey have been signed into law. One of these bills requires electric and gas public utilities to establish an “Energy Bill Watch” program to keep customers informed about their current usage. The legislation, which we cosponsored, requires each public electric and gas utility that uses smart meters to notify those customers when their electricity or gas usage exceeds certain thresholds.

Knowledge is power. In this case, the information will enable customers to know their usage before their bills come. It will help them decide if they should turn down the thermostat, or better seal around their windows and doors to stay within their household budgets.

Another of our cosponsored bills signed into law requires the Board of Public Utilities to study the effects of data centers on electricity costs. We are seeing increased demand in our state for data centers and converting warehouses to data centers. These operations use a huge amount of electricity to run. As consumers, we need to know just how much electricity the data centers are using and how their usage will impact our residential electric bills.

Our legislation directs the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to study within one year the effect of electricity usage by data centers on electricity costs in the state. The bill contains specific items to be studied, including an estimate of the portion of the average residential electricity rate attributable to the demand imposed by data centers in the next 20 years.

We also have introduced a bill to require electric public utilities to develop special rules for large load-customers, which are commercial customers for retail electric service that is a centralized facility or facilities with a monthly demand of more than 100 megawatts.

The bill is designed to ensure that other electric public utility customers do not subsidize large-load customers and the costs attributable to them. The legislation also incentivizes large-load customers to develop increased energy efficiency, including technologies that capture and use the heat they produce in their operations.

Here are some of the programs available to assist LD11 residents with their utility costs: Low‑Income Home Energy Assistance Program/Universal Service Fund (LIHEAP/USF), is a state- and federally-funded program helping eligible households pay heating, cooling, and electricity costs. It also offers assistance for arrears and medically necessary cooling expenses. The CAP Utility Assistance Program is county-based assistance to help restore disconnected utilities or pay past-due electric, gas, water, and sewer bills. It offers up to $1,000 per household for arrearage payments or service restoration.

The Gift of Warmth program, for New Jersey Natural Gas customers only, provides charitable assistance for customers experiencing hardship and who have exhausted other options. For more information about the LIHEAP/USF, CAP, and Gift of Warmth programs, visit housingall.org/utilityassistance/.

The Lifeline program, offered by the Federal Communications Commission, provides monthly discounts of up to $9.25 on phone or internet service for eligible low-income consumers. To learn more about Lifeline visit www.lifelinesupport.org.

If you have questions, need help accessing your qualifications with a program, or want to learn about additional utility assistance programs, please call our office at (732) 704-3808. In the meantime, we will continue to look for innovative ways to improve our utility infrastructure and keep prices in line as we work to make New Jersey more affordable for all residents.