VILLAS — Lower Township Council adopted a resolution opposing Atlantic City Electric’s 17.23% rate increase, which is expected to take effect on June 1. Another 8% increase is up for consideration in April.
The average customer’s bill is expected to increase by $28 under the first increase alone.
“I don’t know what they’re doing up there, but we have to push back on this pending [rate increase],” Mayor Frank Sippel said March 3. “They’re applying for another 8% increase going to be considered in April 2025 — that’s the whole premise of this resolution.”
The resolution calls for ACE to withdraw its application to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities for the additional 8% increase, as well as calling on the members of the BPU to resign immediately due to their failure to uphold their fiduciary duty to the public as board members.
In February, U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd, called on BPU members to resign after approving the initial increase.
“I find it ironic that we’re doing a resolution opposing Atlantic City Electric’s rate increase to the BPU, as the state government is telling us to rely more and more on electricity for everything,” Councilman Tom Conrad said. “Don’t get me wrong, I have solar at my house and a hybrid. Why are you going to sit there and say rely on this form, get rid of gas and raise the price of your electric?”
Conrad said increased rates are pushing people away from electricity rather than toward it.
“They want you to push away from natural gas and everything else,” he said. “Wouldn’t they try to lower the price so people would try to go to it?”
On Nov. 21, 2024, ACE petitioned the BPU to increase its base rates for electricity service by about $120 million. The increase was to “recover its operating expenses, taxes and fixed charges, provide insufficient operating revenues to reflected increased investment in its rate base, and are inadequate for ACE to maintain financial viability. Further, ACE asserted its present rates do not provide fair opportunity to earn a reasonable rate of return on the company’s property used to provide utility service.”
Additionally, the funds ACE seeks to receive would be used to pay for $109 million in infrastructure work to reduce outages.
According to Advanced Energy United, a renewable energy advocacy group, electricity prices continue to increase, and consumers are paying the price for issues with grid infrastructure, among other factors.
The resolution also calls upon ACE, Pepco Holdings and Exelon Corp. to publish their internal audit resulting from Van Drew’s meeting in December 2024.
That month, he met with leaders of ACE and Exelon to discuss the rising rates. Van Drew shared the letter he received from the BPU as a follow-up to the meeting, and said there still was a lot of work to do.
By RACHEL SHUBIN/Special to the Star and Wave