Atlantic City Electric Receives Approval for Base Rate Adjustment

MAYS LANDING – The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) announced its approval of a stipulation of settlement in the Atlantic City Electric (ACE) base rate case authorizing ACE to increase its electric distribution rates by $45 million. The new rates will go into effect immediately.
“In order to further improve our electric system and continue providing quality service, it’s important that we build smarter energy infrastructure and upgrade our existing electrical systems,” said Vince Maione, Atlantic City Electric region president. “The distribution rate adjustment will help enable us to continue our ongoing reliability improvement programs to meet and exceed our customers’ expectations and will reimburse the company for monies already spent in achieving these goals.”
ACE is committed to enhancing its energy infrastructure. Over the past five years, ACE has spent approximately $716 million in energy system upgrades. Customers are seeing the benefits of this work. During 2015, customers experienced 41 percent fewer outages and, when outages did occur, service was restored about 25 percent faster compared to 2011.
Since 2011, ACE has performed reliability upgrades and system improvements on approximately 210 electric circuits. These are higher voltage lines that distribute electricity to customers. ACE has also upgraded hundreds of miles of wire, replaced hundreds of poles, and installed automated switching technology on dozens of electric circuits designed to isolate outages and restore power to customers quicker. In addition, the company has upgraded four substations with new equipment, circuit breakers and transformers, and built three new substations in Avalon, Cape May County, Franklin Township, Gloucester County and the City of Port Republic, Atlantic County.
This filing also includes an economic development discount rider. This pilot program will help promote new and incremental business growth in southern New Jersey through a five-year discount for commercial customers who meet the requirements. The program will help to encourage new and existing businesses to develop or expand in South Jersey. Qualifying businesses will receive a 20 percent monthly bill credit, for five years, on the distribution portion of their bill.
Under the new rates, a typical bill for a residential customer using 750 kilowatt hours per month will increase by $5.33 or from $135.88 to $141.21 per month. A typical bill for a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours per month will increase by $7.05 or from $181.20 to $188.25 per month, a 3.89 percent increase over rates currently in effect.
ACE will continue to make infrastructure enhancements to further improve service reliability throughout its service territory by building new infrastructure and substations and upgrading existing infrastructure by replacing transformers, poles, wires and other improvements.
Distribution rates cover the cost of delivering power, not the cost of the power itself. Customers who buy energy from a competitive supplier continue to receive distribution service from ACE so they will also be affected by this requested rate adjustment. The new total monthly bill for customers who shop for their energy will vary according to the price charged by the customer’s supplier.
Customers with questions regarding billing or the rate increase can contact our Customer Care Center at 1-800-642-3780. ACE will work with customers who may have difficulty paying their utility bills. The company offers payment plans and supports other NJ-211 social service assistance programs to help make it easier for customers to pay their bills.