New Jersey Natural Gas Sees Large Jump in Shopping, SJG Sees Residential Slide End

New Jersey Natural Gas saw a significant increase in the rate of migration by residential customers to competitive supply during April, while South Jersey Gas ended several months of declining residential shopping.

The BPU has posted natural gas migration data, including accounts and load migrated, as of April 2012 (click here).

A comparison by Matters of accounts migrated in April 2012 versus March 2012, can be found here.

From March 2012 to April 2012, New Jersey Natural Gas saw the number of residential customers on competitive supply increase by 1,000 accounts. Due to a reporting gap, a comparison to month-ago growth is not available, but from January 2012 to March 2012, New Jersey Natural Gas saw residential migration to competitive supply grow by only 164 customers.

From March 2012 to April 2012, Public Service Electric and Gas saw the number of residential customers on competitive supply increase by 5,000 accounts. While a month-ago growth rate is not available, the April growth is in line with the average of the two-month growth of 12,000 residential shoppers from January 2012 to March 2012.

South Jersey Gas, which has been experiencing a decline in residential shopping dating back to October 2011, saw the number of residential customers on competitive supply increase by 66 during April, from the March total.

Elizabethtown Gas saw the number of residential customers on competitive supply increase by 339 from March 2012 to April 2012.

As a percent of residential accounts, current migration to competitive gas supply in New Jersey is:

Elizabethtown Gas: 1.45%

New Jersey Natural Gas: 7.67%

PSE&G: 6.26%

South Jersey Gas: 9.47%