Newsroom & Public Notices

New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Certifies 2026 Electricity Auction Results

TRENTON, N.J.--- (February 12, 2026)  --- The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) today certified the results of the State’s 25th annual electricity auction for Basic Generation Service (BGS), resulting in stable rates for electricity supplied to most residents and small and/or medium-sized businesses by all four of New Jersey Electric Distribution Companies (EDCs). The Board’s authority over the auctions is limited to certifying the results as consistent with market conditions and does not extend to influence pricing. 

 

“As wholesale markets continue to put pressure on energy prices, our top priority is keeping electricity affordable for New Jersey customers by using every available tool to keep costs down as directed by Governor Sherrill’s Executive Order No. 1,” said NJBPU President Christine Guhl-Sadovy.   

 

The BGS auction determines, in part, the cost of electricity for most New Jersey residents and many businesses for a 12-month period starting June 1, 2026. Winning prices for all four EDCs increased slightly compared to last year’s auction, driven largely by increases in wholesale energy and the PJM Interconnection (PJM) capacity market. This year’s BGS results remained relatively flat in part due to the PJM collar which is part of a settlement to address high market prices. 

 

PJM is a private, nonprofit regional transmission organization (RTO) and independent system operator (ISO) that manages the high-voltage electric grid and runs wholesale electricity markets for 13 states and the District of Columbia, stretching from Illinois to New Jersey and down to North Carolina, serving 65 million people. The PJM price collar is a temporary guardrail that puts a ceiling and a floor on what power plant owners can earn in PJM's capacity market—which is where utilities pay power plants to guarantee availability when needed. 

 

The price collar cap was adopted in February 2025 after New Jersey and other PJM member states pressed federal regulators to limit projected capacity price spikes.  The collar set a cap of $325 per megawatt-day and a floor of $175 per megawatt-day for the last two auctions, preventing prices from spiking too high or crashing too low. New Jersey and its fellow states argued that customers were being asked to overpay for capacity, and by capping how high those prices could go, the collar helped keep New Jersey's Basic Generation Service (BGS) auction prices—what utilities pay for electricity on behalf of their customers—lower than they otherwise would have been. 

 

Governor Mikie Sherrill signed Executive Order No. 1 during her inauguration on January 20, 2026, declaring a state of emergency on utility costs and directing regulators to find ways to offset electricity supply rate increases beginning with the June 2026 billing cycle. 

 

The Executive Order mandates that the NJBPU shall provide for Residential Universal Bill Credits (RUBCs) to offset increases in the cost of electricity supply scheduled to take effect on June 1, 2026. These credits will be funded from the same or similar sources addressed in the NJBPU’s August 13, 2025 Order, in addition to other appropriate sources.  NJBPU is to issue RUBCs, or an initial set of RUBCs, no later than July 1, 2026.  

 

The following table illustrates how the auction results will affect electricity supply costs for the average residential customer when the new rates take effect on June 1, 2026 (before credits or offsets are applied): 

 

 

The Board’s approval of the BGS results covers two separate descending clock auctions conducted by NERA Economic Consulting beginning February 6 and ending February 10.   

 

The auction for Commercial and Industrial Energy Price (CIEP) service for large commercial and industrial customers was conducted on February 6, and the auction for RSCP service for residential and small- to medium-sized commercial customers was conducted on February 9 and February 10.  Both auctions secured commitments for approximately 7,600 megawatts (MWs) of customer requirements. 

 

The energy secured in the RSCP auction will meet one-third of the State’s residential and small business electric load requirements for the next three energy years, starting June 1, 2026.  The remaining two-thirds of customer supply requirements for the 12-month period beginning June 1, 2026 will be met by electric supply secured in the BGS Auctions held in 2024 and 2025.  The supply acquired through the CIEP auction is for one year.  The State’s four regulated EDCs do not earn a profit on the cost of the electricity supply secured in the auctions; these costs are passed through directly to ratepayers. 

 

For CIEP ratepayers, when compared to last year, the prices for all EDCs were mixed.  

 

The CIEP price is primarily driven by the cost of electric generating capacity from PJM’s Reliability Pricing Model (RPM) Auction and the cost of meeting the State Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS).  The CIEP price constitutes only a small portion of monthly bills of CIEP customers for the period from June 1, 2026 to May 31, 2027. 

 

The CIEP product is a full requirements product.  The energy portion of the product is priced at the spot price of energy.  The price in the auction is meant to cover the costs of capacity and meet the State RPS.  As of December 2025, approximately 81% of the CIEP load is being provided through individual contracts with third-party suppliers.  

 

These contracts are negotiated in the competitive marketplace and are not affected by the CIEP auction results. 

BGS-RSCP 3-Year Tranches 

 

 

The winning bidders of the Residential and Small Commercial Pricing (RSCP) Auction are: 

 

The BGS-CIEP Auction winners are: