NJ electric bills are up 43% in three years. Second worst in the country.
NJ residential electric bills are up 43.4% over the last three years. The national average is 13.8%. (Sorry I know the chart is hard to read)
I knew electric bills had gotten bad here. I had no idea the increase was more than three times the national average or that NJ was second worst in the country.
We talk constantly about how expensive it is to buy a house here, especially now with mortgage rates back in the 7s. But then you buy the house and get to pay for everything that comes with owning it. Insurance costs more, repairs cost more, contractors cost more and apparently keeping the lights on costs a whole lot more too.
Then there are data centers. NJ already has them and there are more coming, but I don’t want to blame them for the 43% increase because that isn’t really accurate. We’re part of the PJM power grid that covers 13 states and DC, and data centers are adding a ton of demand to that grid.
NJ passed a law this summer that's supposed to keep the cost of powering new data centers and the upgrades they need from getting passed along to everyone else. I guess we’ll see how well that works.
I’m not even sure how I feel about the data center boom in general. I understand why states want them and I also understand why people don’t want massive power users showing up when electric bills already look like this.
Data centers or no data centers, 43% in three years is pretty brutal. Especially when I’m having a hard time thinking of anything else I pay for that has gotten cheaper lately.