TRENTON, N.J. – An Ocean County lawmaker is calling on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to hold a public reliability hearing after severe storms and extreme heat left hundreds of thousands of residents without electricity over the Fourth of July holiday.
Assemblyman Alex Sauickie said the outages exposed weaknesses in the state’s electric grid and raised questions about whether utility investments approved by state regulators are improving reliability for ratepayers.
“New Jersey families are paying some of the highest utility costs in the nation, and what are they getting for it?” said Sauickie (R-Ocean). “Spoiled food, dark homes, failed traffic lights, unsafe conditions and vague restoration updates on a holiday weekend. The governor and the BPU cannot keep telling people to pay more while delivering less reliability.”
More than 200,000 customers lost power after severe thunderstorms swept across New Jersey, with widespread outages reported in JCP&L and PSE&G service territories. Tens of thousands remained without electricity as dangerous heat settled over the state during the holiday weekend.
Calling the outages “an accountability issue, not just a weather story,” Sauickie said the BPU should require testimony from board officials, utility executives, emergency management officials, municipal leaders and independent grid reliability experts.
“The board’s job is to protect ratepayers and make sure New Jerseyans receive safe, adequate and reliable service at reasonable rates,” he said. “Before forcing families to pay more for new experimental energy mandates, the governor and the BPU should prove they can keep the lights on.”
The proposed hearing would examine utility storm preparedness, restoration efforts, communications with customers and local officials, vegetation management, equipment failures and whether ratepayer-funded reliability investments produced measurable improvements.
Sauickie also urged the BPU to require each affected utility to submit a written after-action report detailing the number of customers affected, restoration timelines, staffing levels, mutual aid deployment, infrastructure failures and recommendations before the next major storm.
The hearing should also evaluate whether state energy policy is placing enough emphasis on affordability and grid reliability before advancing additional energy mandates, he said.
“Every time Trenton asks ratepayers for more money, we’re told it’s for reliability, resiliency and modernization,” Sauickie said. “The Fourth of July weekend was the test. Hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans were left in the dark. They deserve to know where their money is going.”
“Storms happen. Heat happens,” he added. “But accountability should happen, too.”
