STATE OF NEW JERSEY
222nd LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Senator BOB SMITH
District 17 (Middlesex and Somerset)
Senator JOHN F. MCKEON
District 27 (Essex and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Requires electric public utilities to submit to BPU and implement electric infrastructure improvement plans.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning distributed energy sources and supplementing Title 48 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. As used in this section:
"Board" means the Board of Public Utilities.
"Reactive power" means the portion of alternating current electricity, measured in volt-amperes reactive, that cannot do useful work due to a misalignment of the current and voltage waveforms of the electricity.
b. The Board of Public Utilities shall require each electric public utility to file, no later than 120 days after the effective date of this act, an electric infrastructure improvement plan, in accordance with procedures established by the board. The purpose of the plans shall be to reopen many of the State’s electric distribution circuits that have been closed to any additional renewable energy installations, or restricted to 100 kilowatts or less of remaining circuit capacity. A plan shall not be required to include infrastructure improvements to the electric transmission system. Each plan shall include provisions for:
(1) permitting the flow of electricity, through an electrical substation, from the distribution system to the transmission system;
(2) requiring those solar inverters that are located on closed circuits to utilize standard smart inverter technology that allows the inverter to inject and absorb reactive power;
(3) requiring those energy storage systems that are located on closed circuits to utilize standard smart inverter technology that allows the energy storage system to inject and absorb real and reactive power; and
(4) any additional low-cost and highly actionable non-wires alternatives identified by an electric public utility as a potential means to reopen closed electric distribution circuits to renewable energy installations.
c. No later than 300 days after the effective date of this act, the board shall review and may approve, approve with modifications, or disapprove each electric infrastructure improvement plan that the board deems to be complete. As a condition of approval, the board shall require each electric public utility to:
(1) submit performance metrics and reports to the board, showing whether the implementation of the electric infrastructure improvement plan has resulted in additional distributed energy resource interconnection approvals, including an accounting of all interconnection approvals, the types of distributed energy resource projects that were approved, and the total capacity of distributed energy resource projects that were approved because of the implementation of the plan, and
(2) schedule the associated work to be completed in a reasonable and prudent manner at the earliest date possible.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would require each electric public utility in the State to submit, within 120 days after the bill’s enactment, an electric infrastructure improvement plan to the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) for approval. The purpose of the plan would be to reopen many of the State’s electric distribution circuits that have been closed to any additional renewable energy installations, or restricted to 100 kilowatts or less of remaining circuit capacity.
The bill would require each plan to contain certain provisions, as enumerated in subsection b. of section 1 of the bill, as well as any additional provisions included by the utility. The bill would require the BPU to approve, approve with modifications, or disapprove each plan within 300 days after the bill’s enactment. Each utility would be required to schedule the work associated with each plan at the earliest date possible.
The bill would also require each public utility to submit performance metrics and reports to the BPU, showing whether the implementation of its electric infrastructure improvement plan has resulted in additional distributed energy resource interconnection approvals.