New Jersey seeks 150 MW of behind-the-meter storage to support VPP

New Jersey regulators have proposed a new incentive for homeowners who install battery storage alongside their electric service. Customers of the state's four electric utilities — Atlantic City Electric, Jersey Central Power & Light, Public Service Electric & Gas, and Rockland Electric — could get up to $200 per kilowatt of battery capacity each year for 10 years if they let their utility draw on that stored power during periods of high grid stress. The plan targets up to 150 megawatts of home and small-business battery capacity statewide.

This is the first phase of a larger effort called the Garden State Energy Storage Program, which aims to add 2 gigawatts of storage in New Jersey by 2030. It also feeds into a planned "virtual power plant" system, where home batteries and other small-scale energy resources are coordinated together like a single power plant to help the grid during peak demand. That broader VPP program is expected to start next year, run for two years, and then shift to a different payment structure in 2029.

For now, this is a proposal, not a final program — the state utility board is holding a public meeting on September 3 to gather feedback before moving forward. If you already have, or are considering, a home battery in New Jersey, this incentive could eventually apply to you, though the exact enrollment process and start date have not been set yet. Homeowners in other states can check what battery or demand-response incentives their own utility offers, since programs like this vary widely by state.