New Jersey stops summer electric shutoffs through August
A New Jersey household that qualifies cannot have its electric, water or sewer service shut off this summer, no matter how large the unpaid balance grows. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, working with the Department of Community Affairs, opened the Summer Termination Program to stop those shutoffs from June 15 through August 31, 2026. The program is new this year. Its winter counterpart, the Winter Termination Program, already protected 283,738 households from a gas, electric, sewer or water shutoff during the 2024 to 2025 season.
Who qualifies for the summer shutoff protection in New Jersey
A household already enrolled in 1 of 7 assistance programs qualifies for the Summer Termination Program automatically. Those programs are the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Supplemental Security Income, Pharmaceutical Assistance to the Aged and Disabled, General Assistance, the Universal Service Fund and the Lifeline Credit Program. A household that does not qualify through 1 of those 7 can still qualify through hardship, meaning it cannot pay its bill because of unemployment, illness, a medical expense or a death in the family. Rich Lambert, the Director of the Board of Public Utilities Division of Customer Assistance, told a reporter the program covers nine different categories of protection. That count comes from Lambert directly, since the list the agency itself publishes names only 7 programs plus the hardship category, not 9 separate items.
The summer termination program is very beneficial in protecting the residents of New Jersey during the hot summer months.
Rich Lambert, Director of the Board of Public Utilities Division of Customer Assistance. Source 2.
How much a qualifying household can get
The Universal Service Fund and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program both use the same income rule, a household at or below 60% of the state median income. The assistance page published by the Board of Public Utilities turns that rule into an exact yearly dollar limit for each household size, running from 50,005 dollars for a household of 1 up to 132,707 dollars for a household of 8.
The exact dollar limit for household sizes 2 through 7 sits between these 2 points on the same table but is not restated here, since this chart shows the size of the range, not each size individual limit.
Show the numbers
| Household size 1 to 8 | 50,005 to 132,707 dollars a year |
The Universal Service Fund also pays a monthly credit toward a combined gas and electric bill, ranging from 20 to 200 dollars a month, to a household that meets that same income limit.
This credit applies to a household at or below 60% of the state median income, the same threshold used for the Summer Termination Program eligibility rule.
Show the numbers
| Universal Service Fund credit | 20 to 200 dollars a month |
Why New Jersey added a summer shutoff protection now
New Jersey recorded 128,828 electric shutoffs in 2024 alone, a year the state also logged as its second warmest on record. State Senator Raj Mukherji says he wrote the state law behind the program, though none of the 5 sources names its bill number. New Jersey now joins 26 states that offer some form of summer shutoff protection, at a time nearly 200 New Jersey residents have died of heat stroke since 2000, with hundreds more treated in emergency rooms for heat related illness every year.
Electricity for cooling is not a luxury in scorching conditions, it is a lifeline.
Raj Mukherji, New Jersey state senator who says he wrote the law behind the program. Source 1.
What a household still owes once summer ends
The protection stops August 31, 2026, and any unpaid balance is still owed in full once it does, the Board of Public Utilities states. Jacquelyn A Suarez, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, described who the program covers in plain terms.
If you qualify for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program or any of our other assistance programs, you qualify for the Summer Termination Program.
Jacquelyn A Suarez, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. Source 1.
The press release announcing the program carries a printed date of 2026 06 24, read directly on the document header, 2 days earlier than the date most news coverage of the program used. A household that still cannot pay can also call SHARES, a nonprofit network of more than 200 social service agencies at more than 250 locations across the state, listed by the Board of Public Utilities as an assistance contact, though the network states no set dollar grant amount of its own.