An Assembly committee voted 7-3 on Friday to advance legislation that requires the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to work with neighboring states to research and recommend alternatives to the regional grid operator’ transmission arrangements.
NJBIA testified that it could not support the bill, A-3967, because it could potentially remove New Jersey from PJM Interconnection, which manages the electrical grid for all or parts of 13 states – an outcome that would be disruptive, costly and undermine electric power reliability.
“We're not here today to defend PJM,” NJBIA Deputy Chief Government Affairs Officer Ray Cantor said in his testimony to the Assembly Telecommunications & Utilities Committee. “There's no doubt the recent spikes in electric prices are partly due to PJM being caught flat-footed and not having updated their procedures and rules quickly enough to respond to changing dynamics in the energy market.”
However, PJM has been the regional grid operator for 100 years, and while the legislation does not force New Jersey to withdraw from PJM, it could lead to that outcome, Cantor said.
“We are very concerned as a business community that we have an energy system and grid management, that prioritizes affordability and reliability,” Cantor said. “Energy is the backbone of everything we do economically. From a business perspective we need to move cautiously and not just respond to the problems of the day but look at things more holistically.”
Cantor said that NJBIA would be happy to support legislation that studied recent electric rate increases, how they could have been avoided and policies moving forward. “But moving toward a withdrawal from PJM may not be the place that we want to go,” he said.
The committee amended the bill to require BPU’s recommendations to the Governor and Legislature to be completed within one year of the enactment of the legislation.
