New Jersey Natural Gas Files to Expand Energy-Efficiency Programs for Customers

Building on its decade-long record of leadership in running energy-efficiency programs, New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) today filed a proposal with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU), seeking to significantly expand its offerings to help customers save money, manage their energy usage and reduce emissions.

The $249 million proposal would strengthen NJNG’s existing energy-efficiency offerings for residential and commercial customers, launch a new program to serve multi-family properties and provide targeted assistance for low- and moderate-income households. In addition, this filing reflects new legislative provisions intended to shift administration of some programs from the State to utilities, and provides an innovative approach for collaboration with electric utilities that have overlapping service territories with NJNG.

If approved in full, the programs reflected in this filing will help NJNG customers save more than 128 million therms of natural gas, preventing the emission of over 677,000 metric tons of CO2 - the equivalent of taking 146,000 cars off the road for a year. As proposed, the filing would also allow NJNG to meet or exceed the energy reduction targets set by the BPU, consistent with the landmark New Jersey Clean Energy Act, which was signed into law in 2018 and for the first time ever set specific energy reduction targets for the State’s utilities.

“NJNG has been a leader in New Jersey’s energy-efficiency industry for over a decade, running robust programs that have conserved energy, delivered savings for our customers and reduced emissions to benefit the environment,” said Steve Westhoven, president and chief executive officer of New Jersey Natural Gas. “As NJNG’s largest-ever program to put energy efficiency within reach for our customers, this filing reflects our strong commitment to clean energy, emissions reduction and sustainability. We are doing our part to help New Jersey reduce emissions and realize a clean energy future, while doubling down on our efforts to help our most vulnerable customers save energy and money.”

Pending BPU approval, NJNG expects to invest more than $249 million over the three-year program, consisting of approximately $127 million of direct investment and $98 million in financing options, and approximately $23 million in operation and maintenance expenses. The average annual impact for the typical residential heating customer using 1,000 therms per year over the 15-year recovery term of the program is estimated to be $21.71 or 1.9%. Expected savings for participating customers will range from 1 to 30% depending on the program utilized. Lifetime net benefits – above and beyond the cost of the program – are expected to exceed $191 million.