New Jersey’s new executive orders push solar, storage & VPPs as a bill control strategy
By Keith Reynolds | Publisher & Editor, ChargedUp!
New Jersey’s new governor didn’t ease into energy policy. On her first day in office, Gov. Mikie Sherrill declared a state of emergency on utility costs and issued a pair of executive orders that push immediate bill relief and speed up in-state power and flexibility resources, especially solar, battery storage and “virtual power plants,” or VPPs.
For commercial real estate owners and planners, that combination signals a shift in how states want the grid to behave: not just “build more wires,” but treat flexibility (batteries, managed loads, smart controls, EV charging) as a bill-control tool that can be planned and financed.
What the executive order does
Executive Order No. 2 reads like a project management memo aimed at the state’s Board of Public Utilities (BPU), utilities and permitting agencies. It sets deadlines for speeding up distributed solar, launching new storage procurement and building a statewide VPP program designed to reduce peak demand by aggregating behind-the-meter resources.
A few of the most consequential instructions:
Community solar scale-up: BPU is directed to open 3,000 megawatts of capacity under the Community Solar Energy Program within 45 days.
Transmission-scale storage push: The order tells BPU to accelerate “transmission-scale” battery storage through the Garden State Energy Storage Program — including initiating a new solicitation (Tranche 2) within 45 days and launching Phase 2 within 90 days.
Formal VPP program: Within 180 days, BPU must begin developing a statewide VPP program administered by utilities and third-party suppliers to cut peak demand by aggregating distributed energy resources. It explicitly calls for steps that could enable aggregated resources to participate in PJM’s capacity market “to the fullest extent possible.”
Interconnection pressure: The order pushes utilities to improve hosting capacity maps, speed interconnection, identify constrained circuits to upgrade, and address “ghost load” — duplicative large-load interconnection requests that can inflate demand projections.
That last point matters more than it sounds. One of the quiet bottlenecks in electrification is not technology — it’s how fast projects get permission to connect. New Jersey’s own regulators just updated interconnection rules earlier this month, and industry observers framed it as a long-overdue modernization to align with best practices.
Why now: high bills, tight supply and PJM politics
New Jersey is not inventing rate anxiety out of thin air.
In April 2025, BPU cited projected average monthly bill increases starting June 1, 2025, ranging roughly 17% to 20% depending on utility territory. The BPU has previously tied large bill increases to wholesale market outcomes and procurement — specifically PJM Interconnection LLC’s (PJM) capacity auction and the state’s Basic Generation Service (BGS) auctions.
PJM, the regional transmission organization (RTO) that is part of the Eastern Interconnection grid serving NJ manages the high-voltage electric grid and wholesale electricity markets for all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia. Serving approximately 67 million people, PJM is the largest power grid operator in the United States.
PJM capacity prices have also been volatile. PJM itself has described auctions clearing at caps and, in late 2025, clearing short of its reliability standard — the kind of conditions that keep policymakers on edge.
Layer on rising demand — including data centers — and the “affordability” framing starts to make political and economic sense. The US Energy Information Administration has said U.S. power use is expected to grow faster over 2026 and 2027 than in recent years, driven in part by large computing centers.
Local coverage and policy analysis in New Jersey also points to a tightening supply-demand picture and a sense that wholesale market structure is showing up in retail bills.
What it means for CRE: flexibility becomes “bankable,” not optional
If you own or develop multifamily, mixed-use or master-planned communities, New Jersey’s approach is a signal flare: the state is trying to turn DERs into a broader system resource. A DER is a Distributed Energy Resource — small, site-level energy assets that sit on the customer side of the meter (or close to it) and can either produce power, store it, or flex demand.
That is a different posture than “please install chargers if you feel like it.” Here’s the practical CRE translation:
1) Storage and controls move from amenity to asset.
In a VPP world, a battery isn’t just a backup. It’s also a tool that can earn value (or avoid costs) by reducing peaks — the expensive hours that drive capacity and demand charges. If BPU builds a program that allows aggregation and PJM participation, building-scale resources could become part of a monetizable stack rather than a “nice-to-have.”
2) Managed EV charging gets pulled into the grid plan.
EO-2 is explicit about aggregating behind-the-meter resources, and its interconnection directives point to a future where utilities care not just about adding load, but about how that load behaves. For owners, that’s a nudge toward networked Level 2, load management and controls that can respond to price signals.
3) Pro formas may start to assume grid services' value.
Not immediately — programs take time — but the direction is clear. In markets where electricity prices are already high relative to national averages, owners have more upside in shaving peaks and arbitraging rate structures. EIA’s state electricity data is one place to track those price dynamics over time.
The caution: execution matters
New Jersey is trying to act like a grid operator, but success will depend on details: consumer protections, measurement and verification, opt-out rules, and whether utilities and third-party providers can participate without creating vendor lock-in or confusing customers.
In other words, EO-2 is a direction of travel — not a finished product. But it’s a meaningful one. When a state ties affordability directly to solar, storage and VPPs, it’s effectively telling the market: flexibility is part of the infrastructure plan.
For owners and planners, the opportunity is to get ahead of that curve — not by becoming energy experts, but by making sure new projects are designed so they can participate when programs arrive: space for batteries, conduit and panels sized for growth, and controls that can coordinate EV charging, HVAC and onsite storage.
