A 4801 New Jersey General Assembly · 2026-2027 Regular Session

Establishes certain protections against demand by large-load addition customers in State.

This bill establishes protections for large electricity customers in New Jersey who consume 50 megawatts or more at a single location. It requires that when the regional grid operator PJM orders load reductions or assigns long-term capacity costs due to these large customers, those obligations must be passed directly to the large customers rather than being spread across all New Jersey electricity users. To qualify for service, large-load customers must provide financial security to ensure their reliability costs do not affect other consumers and must submit detailed usage information to PJM. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities will create specific rules to implement these requirements.

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2026

Committee Review

General Assembly Passage

Jun 2026

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Mar 23, 2026 Last action Jun 30, 2026

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What changed between versions

Introduced → Reprint · 7 edits

MODERATE

The First Reprint of A4801 makes several substantive changes to the large-load addition customer protections bill. Most significantly, it expands scope to include electric public utilities alongside load-serving entities, broadens who can receive financial security (adding PJM and other entities), and strengthens the financial security requirement by applying it even if a customer's demand does not fully materialize. It also gives the Board of Public Utilities explicit authority to set an alternative MW threshold for large-load addition customers.

SCOPE

Sections 2, 3, and 4 now apply to electric public utilities in addition to load-serving entities, broadening which entities must pass through curtailment obligations and financial costs to large-load addition customers.

The Board of Public Utilities is given explicit authority to adopt rules determining an alternative MW threshold for large-load addition customers, and the definition of 'large-load addition customer' now references this alternative threshold.

ELIGIBILITY

The definition of 'load-serving entity' now explicitly includes a large-load addition customer that serves as its own load-serving entity, allowing self-service arrangements.

REQUIREMENT

Section 4 financial security can now be provided to the load-serving entity, PJM, the electric public utility, or other entity (previously only the load-serving entity or electric public utility).

Section 4 now requires financial security even if the large-load addition customer's demand does not fully materialize over the term of the reliability procurement commitment, replacing the prior condition that security was only needed if demand actually necessitated backstop procurement.

Section 3 now uses 'passed through or allocated' instead of just 'passed through,' giving more flexibility in how financial obligations are distributed to large-load addition customers.

DEFINITION

The definition of 'reliability backstop procurement' was changed to 'reliability procurement,' removing the qualifier that it applies only during periods when market-based outcomes are insufficient to meet forecasted needs, and changing 'contracts' to 'commitments.'

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the General Assembly by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Jun 30, 2026

Lower · Passed

Passed by the Assembly (79-0-0)

lower

Mar 23, 2026

Introduced

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee

lower

2 primary · 2 co-sponsors