A program that pays you for your home battery
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has proposed a program that pays you for your home battery, along with a smart thermostat or an electric vehicle charger, whenever the power grid is under strain. The Board published this straw proposal, an early draft version of a rule that regulators release to gather public reaction before writing a final version, on July 15, 2026, under docket number QO26030099, a case file number regulators use to track this specific proposal. The plan runs through 4 electric utilities in New Jersey, Public Service Electric and Gas, Jersey Central Power and Light, Atlantic City Electric and Rockland Electric, and is due to start no later than July 1, 2027.
What a virtual power plant actually does
The industry term for this setup is a virtual power plant, a network of small devices already inside homes that a utility can call on together, the way it would call on one large power plant. Instead of building a new power plant for the handful of hours each year when demand peaks, the utility pays households to let it draw down a battery, adjust a thermostat or pause a car charger for a short time.
A 180 day deadline from an emergency order
This proposal exists because Governor Mikie Sherrill declared a state of emergency on January 20, 2026, his first day in office, signing Executive Order Number 2 to order thousands of megawatts of new solar and battery power onto the grid. The order also gave the Board 180 days to design a virtual power plant program built on demand response programs utilities already run, letting a device already enrolled in an older program count toward this new one. Counting from the day Sherrill signed that order, the Board published its straw proposal on day 176, 4 days before that 180 day window closed.
Day counts are calculated from the executive order signing date confirmed by source 5. Executive Order Number 2 gave regulators 180 days to design this program.
Show the numbers
| Request for information | 90 |
| Straw proposal | 176 |
| 180 day deadline | 180 |
The Board announced a public meeting for July 30, 2026 at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor Township, then took written comments on the proposal through August 17, 2026. Board President Ben Hertz Shargel explained the reasoning behind the plan.
Every New Jersey family deserves a grid that works smarter and costs less.
Ben Hertz Shargel, president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. Source 1.
From proposal to a 2027 launch
The transitional version of the program is due to start no later than July 1, 2027, 527 days after the executive order, and is set to run for 2 years. A second, fully open phase follows in 2029, letting any qualifying device compete for payments rather than only the ones each utility selects ahead of time.
Day counts are calculated from the executive order signing date confirmed by source 5.
Show the numbers
| Writing the proposal | 0 to 176 days after the order |
| Proposal to launch | 176 to 527 days after the order |
Utilities are not waiting for the state deadline
Public Service Electric and Gas, one of the 4 utilities, plans to offer an upfront incentive of about 5,000 dollars toward an 8 kilowatt home battery this same month, with the rest of the installation cost paid off through the utility own on bill repayment plan. Pepco Holdings, which owns Atlantic City Electric in New Jersey, is testing a similar idea first in Delaware, where its Delmarva Power utility pays pilot participants an estimated 1,080 dollars a year, with 100 to 300 devices enrolled so far. Pepco Holdings says those Delaware results will help shape what it eventually offers Atlantic City Electric customers in New Jersey.
These devices behave differently when you call upon them.
Andrew Bayne, manager for energy efficiency programs at Pepco Holdings. Source 4.