Electric Company in New Jersey: Who Serves Your Address?

A homeowner in Montclair and a homeowner in Cape May both pay New Jersey electric bills, but they have never shared the same electric company. New Jersey's grid is divided among four investor-owned utilities, each holding an exclusive franchise territory approved by the NJ Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU).

The four utilities are:

PSE&G (Public Service Electric and Gas) serves the densest portion of the state, covering much of northern and central New Jersey, including Newark, Jersey City, Trenton, and surrounding communities. It is the largest of the four by customer count.

JCP&L (Jersey Central Power and Light) serves a wide band running from the western Highlands through Monmouth and Ocean counties, including towns like Morristown, Toms River, and Red Bank.

Atlantic City Electric covers South Jersey, including Atlantic City, Cherry Hill, Vineland, and most of the shore communities south of the Raritan Bay.

Rockland Electric is the smallest territory, serving a cluster of communities in Bergen and Passaic counties along the New York border, including towns such as Mahwah and Hillsdale.

Your utility is not a choice. It is assigned by geography, and you cannot switch from one utility to another no matter which supplier you select. What you can choose is your electricity supplier, which is a separate part of the bill.

The fastest way is to look at any electric bill. The utility's name and logo appear at the top, and the bill is divided into at minimum two charges: a delivery charge and a supply charge. The delivery portion always belongs to your regulated utility. The supply portion either belongs to the utility's default Basic Generation Service (BGS) program or to a third-party competitive supplier you enrolled with.

If you do not have a bill handy, the NJBPU maintains a territory map on its website. You can also call your municipality's clerk office, since town boundaries often correspond closely to utility service areas.

For a quick side-by-side look at current supplier rates by territory, the New Jersey rate comparison page on ElectricRates.org lists live offers filtered by utility territory.

When you have never enrolled with a competitive supplier, or when a supplier contract expires, your account falls back to Basic Generation Service (BGS), the default supply program administered by each utility under NJBPU oversight. BGS rates are not fixed for life. They reset periodically through a competitive auction process, so the figure on last year's bill is likely different from today's.

As of August 2026, the default BGS supply rates are approximately:

PSE&G: ~19.6 cents per kWh
JCP&L: ~15.2 cents per kWh
Atlantic City Electric: ~18.2 cents per kWh
Rockland Electric: ~18.8 cents per kWh

These figures represent only the supply portion of the bill. Delivery charges, taxes, and utility fees are added on top and vary by utility. The total bill per kWh is higher than the supply rate alone.

The spread between the highest and lowest BGS rates, roughly 4.4 cents per kWh, is meaningful. A household using 800 kWh per month in PSE&G territory pays noticeably more for the same amount of electricity than a similar household in JCP&L territory, purely because of geography.

Yes. New Jersey deregulated its electricity supply market, which means residential customers in all four utility territories can choose a licensed third-party supplier instead of the utility's BGS default. The wire delivery system stays the same regardless of supplier. Switching does not affect reliability.

As of August 2026, the lowest competitive supply rate available in New Jersey is around 13.3 cents per kWh, though that figure varies by territory and offer type. Not every rate at 13.3 cents is available in every zip code. Some offers are fixed-rate contracts, others are variable. Contract lengths range widely.

Before enrolling, check three things: the rate type (fixed vs. variable), the contract length, and any early termination fee. NJBPU licenses all third-party suppliers and maintains a list of licensed suppliers on its website. For a filtered list of current offers by utility territory, visit ElectricRates.org's New Jersey page.

One caution worth noting: some variable-rate supplier contracts start below BGS and then climb after the introductory period. Reading the terms before signing is the single most protective step a customer can take.

Service territories are exclusive, meaning two utilities never cover the same address. But their borders do produce some counterintuitive situations. A street in Bergen County might sit in Rockland Electric territory while the next block over is PSE&G. Municipal boundaries and utility service boundaries were drawn at different times for different purposes and do not always match.

A few general landmarks help orient residents:

The Hudson River corridor and most of Essex, Hudson, Union, and Middlesex counties fall within PSE&G territory. Morris County is largely JCP&L. Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, and Salem counties are mostly Atlantic City Electric. The northeastern corner of Bergen County and parts of Passaic near the New York state line are Rockland Electric.

If you are moving within New Jersey, do not assume your new address is served by the same utility as your old one. Check before the move, especially if you are considering a supplier contract that specifies a utility territory.

Every NJ residential electric bill is divided into two fundamental components regardless of who supplies the electricity.

Delivery charges are paid to the regulated utility, always. PSE&G, JCP&L, Atlantic City Electric, or Rockland Electric owns the poles, wires, transformers, and meters that physically bring electricity to your home. This portion is regulated by the NJBPU and is the same whether you are on BGS or a competitive supplier.

Supply charges are paid either to the utility's BGS program or to a licensed third-party supplier. This is the portion that deregulation opened up to competition.

There are also various riders, taxes, and surcharges on New Jersey bills. The Societal Benefits Charge, the Market Transition Charge, and the Transitional Energy Facility Assessment have all appeared on NJ bills at various points. The specific line items and their amounts change as the NJBPU updates tariffs, so the current bill breakdown is best reviewed directly on your utility's tariff schedules or the NJBPU website.

When comparing supplier offers, focus on the supply cents-per-kWh figure because delivery charges are beyond your control.

New Jersey has two primary assistance programs for customers who have difficulty paying electric bills.

USF (Universal Service Fund) is a New Jersey-specific program that provides a monthly credit on electric and gas bills for income-qualified customers. Eligibility and credit amounts are set by the NJBPU. All four utilities participate.

LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) is a federally funded program administered at the state level. It provides one-time or seasonal grants to help cover energy costs. Applications are generally open during heating season but may have separate cooling assistance windows.

For current income thresholds, credit amounts, and application windows, the authoritative sources are the NJBPU website and the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, which administers LIHEAP in the state. Do not rely on third-party summaries for eligibility specifics, as thresholds are updated regularly.

Comparing rates across New Jersey suppliers comes down to a three-step process.

First, identify your utility. Find your current bill and note whether you are already on BGS or with a third-party supplier. Note your average monthly kilowatt-hour usage, which appears on the bill and is often shown as a 12-month chart.

Second, compare the supply rate you are paying to what is available. As of August 2026, the BGS supply rates are known (see above). Competitive offers in the market start as low as 13.3 cents per kWh in some territories. The difference on a 700 kWh monthly household in PSE&G territory between 19.6 cents BGS and a 13.3-cent competitive offer would be a meaningful dollar sum each month, though exact savings depend on all-in bill totals including delivery.

Third, read the contract before switching. Fixed-rate offers lock in a price for the term. Variable-rate offers fluctuate. If you switch and then want to return to BGS, you can do so, but an early termination fee on a supplier contract could offset short-term savings.

ElectricRates.org filters live offers by New Jersey utility territory and contract type, which removes the manual search work.