New Jersey BGS Default Service Rates to Fall In Most Territories, Higher At PSE&G

New Jersey's Basic Generation Service auction generally produced lower or stable supply prices for three-year contracts to serve one-third of Fixed Price (under 500 kW) customers for the period starting June 1, 2015, with the exception of Public Service Electric & Gas, where transmission costs drove prices higher.

For Fixed Price customers (below 500 kW), the BGS auction procured 36-month tranches for the period starting June 1, 2015, with pricing as follows:

Utility       Closing Price      Tranches Sold
                (¢/kWh)
ACE              8.606                 7
JCP&L            8.042                20
PSE&G            9.954                29
RECO             9.066                 1

Final fixed price BGS rates will reflect a blend of the above prices and prices from the two prior BGS auctions, under a blending process.

These new tranches replace tranches procured in 2012 which had the following prices:

Utility       2012 Closing Price      
                (¢/kWh)
ACE              8.510                
JCP&L            8.176                
PSE&G            8.388                
RECO             9.251                

According to the BPU, the new blended rates will result in the following total bill impacts for residential customers starting June 1, 2015

Utility   Monthly Bill Increase    % Increase
ACE             ($3.60)              (2.97%)
JCP&L            $0.09                0.0%
PSE&G            $2.58                2.1%
RECO            ($3.92)              (3.2%)

For hourly-priced CIEP customers (500 kW and higher), the BGS auction procured 12-month tranches for the period starting June 1, 2015, with pricing as follows:

Utility       Closing Price   Tranches Sold
               ($/Mw-day)
ACE              235.89            4
JCP&L            248.41           14
PSE&G            272.78           26
RECO             272.14            1

As of December 2014, approximately 86% of the CIEP load is being provided through individual contracts with third-party suppliers.

The 2015 BGS auction products were modified to allow suppliers to pass-through any new capacity performance costs adopted by PJM.

The winning bidders in the Fixed Price (FP) Auction were:

BP Energy Company
BTG Pactual Commodities (US) LLC
DTE Energy Trading, Inc.
Exelon Generation Company, LLC
Macquarie Energy LLC
NextEra Energy Power Marketing, LLC
Noble Americas Gas & Power Corp.
PSEG Energy Resources & Trade LLC
TransCanada Power Marketing Ltd.

The 2015 BGS-CIEP Auction winners were:

ConocoPhillips Company
DTE Energy Trading, Inc.
Exelon Generation Company, LLC
NextEra Energy Power Marketing, LLC
PPL EnergyPlus, LLC