On February 9, 1999, N.J.S.A. 48:3-49, et seq, the Electric Discount and Energy Competition Act, (EDECA) was signed into law. EDECA separated the supply portion of the electric or natural gas rate from the delivery portion. With the supply portion now open to competition, the consumer has the option to shop for the best price on energy supplies from companies other than electric or gas utilities, i.e. from a Third Party Supplier licensed by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (“BPU”).
How do you shop for the best energy rates in New Jersey?
Choosing to purchase energy supplies from companies other than the electric or gas utility, affords basic consumer protection safeguards, but the rates charged by these companies are not regulated by the BPU.
For a complete list of all licensed energy suppliers in New Jersey, see NJ.gov.
If you do nothing:
The electric utility is required to provide electric supplies to you under Basic Generation Service (“BGS”), and the gas utility is required to provide gas supplies to you under Basic Gas Supply Service (“BGSS”) if you choose not to shop. The electric utility’s BGS and gas utility’s BGSS rates are regulated by the BPU. However, these rates are rarely if ever the best rates and are unpredictable; fluctuating every month. In the spring of 2025, the BPU announced insane electricity rate hikes for BGSS effective.
Shopping the third party suppliers:
There are dozens of energy suppliers licensed by the state BPU and working with each of our NJ utility companies. The task of comparing them all would be exhaustive for anyone or even a group of people. Many of these companies have restrictions and limitations on what businesses or non-profits they will deal with and for a variety of reasons.
Please beware. There are the scammers which may contact you by mail, phone or email. They usually offer a prepaid giftcard by switching to them but they lock you into a crazy high rate which rips you off! There’s also the scam of offering a very good rate for a short term while locking you into a longer term at a very high rate.
The article below will assist you and is from the state of New Jersey Board of Public Utilities
Shopping for Energy may save you money on your electric or natural gas utility bill, however, this is not always the case. Prior to agreeing to switch to a Third Party Supplier (“TPS”), it is necessary to become familiar with TPS pricing structures, important contract terms, and how to compare TPS price offers to the price you currently pay for gas or electric supplies (“Price to Compare”) from your electric or gas public utility. Knowing the Price to Compare, how this price can change going forward and the price the TPS is offering to charge you for electric or natural gas supply, will provide valuable information which will assist you in evaluating the TPS price offer. Moreover, it is important to understand the contract terms that the TPS is offering.
TPS Contract Summary:
Once you sign up with a TPS they are required to provide you with a TPS Contract Summary, a standardized one-page summary of your contract that will highlight and summarize the most relevant contract terms. Before you shop, we recommend that you print out the linked TPS Contract Summary form and use this as a guide to ask the TPS relevant questions. This will help you find out important information such as: can the TPS’s fixed price turn to variable, is there a cap on how high the TPS’s variable price can go, how will any advertised savings be calculated, is there a cancellation fee if you decide to return to your utility and how long will it take, and what happens when your contract ends.
Fixed v. Variable Rates:
The electric power and/or gas suppliers must tell you whether the price per unit will be fixed, variable, or fixed for a portion of the contract and variable for a portion of the contract. Click on “Fixed v. Variable Rates” for a specific description of these pricing structures. You will also find important questions to ask about the pricing structure. In addition, when presented with a price offer, the price should include Sales and Use Tax so that you may compare the price offer to your electric or gas public utility’s Price to Compare.
Price to Compare:
You can find the Price to Compare on your most recent natural gas or electric utility bill. It is the price customers pay to their electric utility company, i.e. ACE, PSE&G, RECO or JCP&L, or their gas utility company, i.e. NJNG, ETG, SJG, or PSE&G, for the supply portion of their utility bill. It represents the portion of the utility bill that will be replaced by the charges of a Third Party Supplier if a customer switches to a third party supplier. This section will describe what types of costs are included in the Price to Compare and how the Price to Compare may change.
This may all sound complicated but it really isn’t. However, the only way to get the best pricing on energy is by evaluating (not just price but also varying terms) of all the suppliers which can legally supply energy (gas and/or electricity) to your business. Since this can be an exhaustive process for any business or non-profit, the best way forward is to utilize an energy broker.
However, not all energy brokers or consultants are the same. Although all energy producers compensate brokers with a fee structure similar to what they pay their own sales force, some brokers charge a premium on top of that. Energy brokers which truly attempt to save you money won’t charge you anything and rely solely on the “finders fee” provided by the energy producer.
After much ongoing research and success in saving tens of thousands of dollars for my clients, I know that I’ve found the best energy broker in the country to save money for both businesses and non-profit organizations. In over a decade of doing this, I’ve continued to save money for all my clients except one who was closed down due to COVID. Check out Avion Energy.