On January 23, Staff of the Pennsylvania PUC announced via email that the regulator has updated PAPowerSwitch and PAGasSwitch to add a mandatory “New Customers Only” flag and consumer-facing filter, requiring suppliers to affirmatively label such offers when uploaded to the shopping websites and to explain their definition of “new customer” in the “Additional Information” text field. While the PAPUC is not standardizing the definition of “new customer” yet, it has signaled active monitoring of how suppliers use the term and raised the possibility of future rulemaking if confusion persists among customers about offer eligibility.
The new governor of New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill, wasted no time on January 20, her first day in office, and issued a raft of executive orders aimed at improving energy affordability for ratepayers. Executive Order No. 1 directs the BPU to issue Residential Universal Bill Credits (“RUBCs”) to offset increases in the cost of electricity supply, by July 1. These RUBCs are likely to be paid for by Solar Alternative Compliance Payments and RGGI funds available to the state. The order also directs the BPU to undertake an examination of societal benefits charges paid by customers with an eye towards reducing them. The governor also ordered the BPU to consider a pause on utility rate increases and to “issue a study regarding modernization of the traditional electric distribution utility business model. ” Executive Order No. 2, on the other hand, makes clear that a drive for affordability by the governor is not going to eliminate support for renewable energy. The directive orders the BPU to ”accelerate the development of distributed and utility-scale solar electricity generation" by issuing a solicitation for solar+storage resources within 45 days under the Competitive Solar Incentive program, open for registration the additional 3,000MW of capacity under the Community Solar Energy Program made available under a 2025 state law, and issue a solicitation for Tranche 2 of transmission-scale battery storage under the Garden State Energy Storage Program. E.O. 2 also directs the BPU within six months to launch a virtual power plan program for electric utilities and third party suppliers “to drive down peak demand by aggregating behind-the-meter distributed energy resources.” The order also issues directives to attempt to fix the DER interconnection problem at the state's utilities.
PRQ Note: these orders will involve a significant number of new dockets at the BPU. PRQ will be adding these dockets as they are opened; login to PolicyPlugin.com to see them more quickly.
This week, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) each recently issued a climate change progress report. The draft report in Connecticut states: “However, GHG modeling projections… also show Connecticut is currently not on track to meet its 2030, 2040, or 2050 targets set by the legislature. The projections indicate that under a business-as-usual scenario, Connecticut would achieve a 34% reduction in GHG emissions below 2001 levels by 2030 and a 44% reduction by 2050.” Comments on the draft report are due by February 6. The Michigan report is more optimistic in tone, stating,
“Michigan’s GHG emissions have fallen 20% since 2005, underscoring progress toward climate goals" and touts “grant programs and other investments supporting renewable energy, energy storage, electric vehicles, energy efficiency for residential and commercial buildings, recycling, food waste reduction, and clean energy workforce development.”
On January 22, NYSERDA announced that New York electric utilities have published updated Customer Benefit Contribution (CBC) values for 2026 under the NY-Sun program. The CBC charge is calculated based on the compensation option chosen, customer class, and utility service territory and is applied to net-metered accounts. Rates for other project types are available in the updated CBC Rates document that can be found in the Project Application Guidance section of NY-Sun’s Resources for Contractors page.
On December 19, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law S3876, which requires comparison of prices charged by retail suppliers (ESCOs) monthly on residential customers billing statements. The comparison must include the price the customer would have paid for the same services if they had used the local utility or municipality instead and an itemized list of prices for any energy-related value-added products (e.g., green energy options, home energy reports) the ESCO provided. In addition, S3876 requires that, at least once every 12 months, an ESCO provide each customer with a statement comparing the prices charged by the ESCO over the preceding 12 months with the default service prices that would have applied during the same period.
On January 7, the Delaware PSC considered Staff-proposed administrative and substantive changes to regulations governing electric suppliers in Delaware primarily as a result of concerns about high bills and supplier conduct raised by utility Delmarva Power, some customers, and even Gov. Meyer, earlier in 2025.
A more comprehensive summary of the changes is available for Delaware subscribers at the entry for DEPSC Docket No. Reg. 49.
On January 12, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore announced he had appointed current commissioner and former state representative Kumar Barve as chair of the MD Public Service Commission, replacing Fredrick Hoover, who recently resigned as Chair but remains a sitting commissioner…on January 2, Bobby Payne and Ana Ortega began four-year terms at the Florida PSC. Payne is a long-time electric co-op executive while Ortega has been a senior policy advisor and staffer at the PSC itself. Commissioner Gabriella Passidomo Smith has also begun her tenure as Chairman of the regulator.
As part of its five-year review of regulations, the PUC of Ohio on January 7 re-adopted without changes the existing net metering rules (OAC 4901:1-10-28) and the existing greenhouse gas reporting rules (OAC 4901:1-41-01, 4901:1-41-02, and 4901:1-41- 03)…utility Duquesne Light in Pennsylvania announced via email on January 12 that it will be migrating its EDI transactions to the Cleo B2B Managed Cloud platform, replacing the EDI Translator and the Data Transport platform….on January 15, the Pennsylvania PUC issued an order approving negotiated rate case settlements for Wellsboro, Valley Energy, and Citizens. Under these settlements, Wellsboro can adjust its annual electric distribution operating revenues by $2.5 million, Citizens by approximately $1.39 million, and Valley by $1.1 million.