Newark business energy: PSE&G territory

One utility, two fuels, and a tariff issued from the city

Newark differs from most markets on this site in that a single utility distributes both fuels inside the city. PSE&G's published service territory covers electric and gas services, and Newark, City of appears in Essex County on both lists; Jersey City appears on the same page, which matters because the company's electric tariff names the two cities together in one rate-schedule clause. The tariff is also filed from the city it serves: every sheet closes with the same issuing address, 80 Park Plaza, Newark, which is the utility's own headquarters. What a Newark account can change is the supply line. PSE&G delivers at secondary distribution, primary distribution, subtransmission, transmission or high voltage, and the rate schedule on the bill records which. Supply can come from a third-party supplier or from the utility's Basic Generation Service default, and the delivery side is not shoppable at any of those voltages.

• PSE&G distributes both electricity and gas in Newark, and the city appears on the utility's electric and gas territory lists.
• The electric tariff is issued from 80 Park Plaza, Newark, which is also PSE&G's headquarters address.
• Supply can be bought from a third-party supplier or left on Basic Generation Service; delivery stays with the utility.
• The rate schedule and voltage class on the bill are the first thing to read, because the class ladder follows them.
• Jersey City shares the territory and appears with Newark in the tariff's Area Development Service clause.

The clause that names Newark: Area Development Service

One special provision of PSE&G's general service rate schedule is available only inside named municipalities, and Newark heads the list. Rate Schedule GLP, the general lighting and power rate, provides that where a new or existing customer takes service at a single service connection located within the municipal boundaries of Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth, Camden, Trenton, East Orange, Hoboken, Union City, Plainfield, Gloucester City, Passaic City, Weehawken, Kearny or Orange, service is supplied under that provision subject to conditions. The customer has to sign an Application for Area Development Service, and the utility defines whether the account counts as new for the purpose of the application. The load tests are specific: a new customer needs the application to cover no less than twenty-five kilowatts of applicable Monthly Peak Demand, an existing customer needs a twelve-month minimum load averaging no less than fifty kilowatts, and an existing customer must then show Monthly Peak Demands at least 125 per cent of the comparable months of the previous thirty-six months, or an addition of at least fifty kilowatts, across three consecutive months to qualify for credits. Credits are then calculated per kilowatt of Monthly Peak Demand, and the clause preserves a distinction between the original nine cities and any added later.

• Area Development Service is a special provision of Rate Schedule GLP, not a separate rate schedule.
• Eligibility is keyed to a single service connection inside the municipal boundaries of fifteen named cities, starting with Newark.
• The customer must sign an Application for Area Development Service before credits can be considered.
• New load starts at twenty-five kilowatts of applicable Monthly Peak Demand; existing load is tested against a twelve-month average of fifty kilowatts.
• Existing customers must also show 125 per cent of comparable prior-year demands, or an addition of fifty kilowatts, over three consecutive months.

From general service to high voltage, and the 500 kilowatt line

Above the general rate schedule, PSE&G's electric tariff runs a second ladder that decides a Newark account's default supply. Large Power and Lighting Service is divided into LPL-Secondary and LPL-Primary, and further schedules cover service at subtransmission, transmission and high voltage. The dividing line that most affects a buyer is Peak Load Share, the customer's share of the summer peak load that PJM assigns to the utility. A customer's Peak Load Share in effect on the first of November determines its default supply class for the following first of June. Accounts that take no third-party supply receive the small-customer default class, BGS-RSCP, where they are LPL-Secondary customers with a Peak Load Share below five hundred kilowatts; LPL-Secondary customers at or above five hundred kilowatts, and LPL-Primary customers, receive the commercial and industrial default class instead. A sub-five-hundred-kilowatt LPL-Secondary customer may elect the commercial and industrial class, but the election has a deadline: notice must reach the utility no later than the second business day in January, and it takes effect on the first of June.

• PSE&G's large-power schedules run LPL-Secondary, LPL-Primary, then subtransmission, transmission and high-voltage service.
• A customer's Peak Load Share on 1 November sets its default supply class for 1 June the following year.
• Below five hundred kilowatts of Peak Load Share on LPL-Secondary, the default is the small-customer class, BGS-RSCP.
• At five hundred kilowatts or above, and for LPL-Primary service, the default is the commercial and industrial class.
• Electing the commercial and industrial class below the threshold requires notice by the second business day in January.

How the month's peak is measured, and why the interval matters

Demand charges are priced on a measured peak, and PSE&G's tariff defines how that peak is taken. Under the general service schedule the Monthly Peak Demand is the greatest average number of kilowatts delivered during any thirty-minute interval, and where no demand meter is installed the demand is estimated by dividing kilowatt-hours by one hundred. Estimation is closed off above a small threshold: a new customer expecting a maximum Monthly Peak Demand of ten kilowatts or more is measured, and an existing customer already measured at ten kilowatts or more in any of the preceding twelve months stays on measurement. The large-power schedules narrow the window further. Secondary distribution voltage customers have their Monthly Peak Demand taken over thirty-minute intervals, primary distribution voltage customers over fifteen-minute intervals, and where service is intermittent or subject to violent fluctuation the utility may base the demand on five-minute intervals. The arithmetic follows from the definitions: an average taken over a shorter interval sits closer to the true peak, so the same load can register a higher demand on a narrower interval, and demand is billed for each month of the year rather than once.

• General service demand is the greatest average kilowatts over any thirty-minute interval.
• Where no demand meter is installed the demand is estimated at kilowatt-hours divided by one hundred.
• Measurement is required at ten kilowatts or more, and an account measured there stays measured.
• Large-power demand runs on thirty-minute intervals at secondary voltage and fifteen-minute intervals at primary voltage.
• Intermittent or violently fluctuating loads may be measured on five-minute intervals, which register a higher peak.

The annual minimum charge, and premises nobody is using

PSE&G's tariff carries a floor for accounts that draw little or nothing, and a Newark landlord or site holder should expect it. Where electricity is used for seldom-used applications, an Annual Minimum Charge may be applied, equal to the diversified connected load of the service in kilowatts multiplied by the Annual Demand Charge and then by six. Revenue counted toward that minimum comes only from distribution kilowatt charges and distribution kilowatt-hour charges, so it is a delivery-side floor rather than a supply charge, and it sits alongside a monthly service charge that applies in every month of the year. The practical cases are familiar in a city: a commercial unit between tenants, a building held for redevelopment, a seasonal or intermittent operation, or a site whose connected load is large but whose usage is small. Each of those can be billed on a connected load that the premises never actually draws, which is a different exposure from the consumption-driven charges a working business sees.

• The Annual Minimum Charge may apply where electricity is used for seldom-used applications.
• It equals diversified connected load in kilowatts times the Annual Demand Charge times six.
• Only distribution kilowatt and kilowatt-hour charges count toward satisfying the minimum.
• A monthly service charge applies in every month regardless of use.
• Vacant, seasonal or redevelopment sites are where the minimum matters most.

What makes a Newark account different

Newark's load base is not a scaled-up version of a suburban retail strip, and the tariff's own structure reflects it. The city holds the Port Newark-Elizabeth marine terminal complex and Newark Liberty International Airport, both operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, alongside a downtown office core, hospitals, a university and a long-standing industrial belt. Large continuous loads of that kind sit on the subtransmission, transmission and high-voltage schedules rather than the general rate, which means their delivery cost is dominated by measured demand and by the voltage at which they take service, and their default supply class turns on a Peak Load Share measured against the utility's peak rather than on their own consumption. That is also the commercial logic behind Area Development Service: the clause exists to make expansion and new load inside named cities cheaper to serve, which is why eligibility is written as a municipal boundary rather than as an industry or a consumption band. A buyer on a campus site should read the two together, since the schedule an account sits on decides whether the provision can apply to it at all.

• The port complex and the airport sit inside the city, alongside a downtown core and an industrial belt.
• Large continuous loads take service on the higher-voltage schedules, where measured demand dominates the delivery cost.
• Default supply class turns on Peak Load Share, measured against the utility's peak rather than the site's own usage.
• Area Development Service eligibility is written as a municipal boundary, not as an industry or consumption band.
• Read the rate schedule first: it decides whether the city clause can apply to the account.

What a Newark account should gather

The documents that decide a Newark supply question are the bill, the tariff sheet that governs the account and the agreement already in force. The rate schedule, voltage class and delivery charges on the bill establish what the utility is charging and what any offer is being compared against. The account's Peak Load Share and its position relative to the five hundred kilowatt line decide which default supply class applies and whether the January election is available. Twelve months of consumption with each month's maximum demand show whether the site has growth that an Area Development Service application could cover, and that application is a prerequisite rather than a formality. The interval the meter uses is worth confirming, because a five-minute measurement is a harder test than a thirty-minute one. And any intermittently used premise should be checked against the annual minimum charge before it is left idle. New Jersey allows a municipality to aggregate the accounts inside its borders, so the first question is whether a city programme or ordinance applies to the account; where none does, the decision is made account by account.

• Rate schedule, voltage class and delivery charges, read off the bill.
• Peak Load Share, and where the account sits relative to the five hundred kilowatt line.
• Twelve months of consumption with each month's maximum demand, for any growth case.
• The meter's demand interval, since five-minute measurement registers a higher peak than thirty.
• Whether a municipal aggregation programme or ordinance applies to the account, before assuming either enrolment or independence.

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