Average Electric Bill in New Jersey
Residential · 12-month average, June 2025 – May 2026.
That works out to about $1,919 a year. Among the 50 states and DC, New Jersey has the 21st highest average residential bill.
What makes up the bill
Price × usage = bill, exactly: 23.80¢/kWh × 672 kWh ≈ $160. A state can land high on either factor — New Jersey pays well above the national rate but uses less power than average.
Compared with nearby states
| New Jersey | $160 | |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. average | $155 | |
| Pennsylvania | $172 | |
| Delaware | $165 | |
| New York | $164 |
New Jersey is $5 a month above (+2.9%) the U.S. average of $155. Neighboring states share fuel mixes, weather, and often a grid operator, which makes them a closer benchmark than the national average.
Trend since 2008
Each point is a trailing 12-month average, which strips out the summer/winter swing and leaves the underlying trend. Bills start in January 2008 because that is when EIA began reporting customer counts.
Seasonal swing
- Highest month
- $287
- July 2025
- Lowest month
- $109
- October 2025
- Swing
- $178
- peak minus low
- Latest month
- $127
- May 2026
Actual bills are far from flat: New Jersey peaks in July 2025 and bottoms out in October 2025. The headline figure above is the average across all twelve months.
New Jersey electricity bills in context
New Jersey's average monthly residential electricity bill is $160, ranking 21st among the 50 states and DC, where 1 is the most expensive. The bill runs $5 higher than the national average of $155, a difference of 2.9%. This gap stems from two opposing forces: New Jersey residents pay 23.80¢/kWh, or 5.96¢ more per kilowatt-hour than the national average of 17.84¢/kWh, but they use 199 kWh less each month than the national average of 871 kWh, which pulls the total bill down.
Over the past year, New Jersey's bill has climbed steeply. The average monthly bill in June 2025 through May 2026 stands 20.3% higher than the prior year figure of $133. Looking further back, the bill has grown 41.5% since May 2021 and 43.5% since December 2008, when records began.
Electricity use in New Jersey swings sharply with the seasons. Bills peak in July 2025 at $287 and fall to their lowest in October 2025 at $109, a swing of $178. Among neighbouring states, Pennsylvania's average bill of $172 runs higher than New Jersey's, while Delaware at $165 and New York at $164 sit closer to New Jersey's figure.
Written from the EIA figures on this page, covering data through May 2026.
Frequently asked questions
›How much is the average electric bill in New Jersey?
›Is the electric bill in New Jersey higher than the national average?
›Why is electricity expensive in New Jersey?
›When is the electric bill highest in New Jersey?
›How does New Jersey compare with neighboring states?
How this is calculated
EIA’s retail-sales dataset reports, for every state and month, total residential revenue and the number of residential customers served. The average monthly bill is simply the first divided by the second — total spending across all households, spread evenly over all accounts.
bill = revenue ÷ customers · averaged over 12 months (June 2025 – May 2026)
Two caveats worth knowing. It is an average, so it blends apartments with large houses — a typical household in New Jersey may pay well above or below $160. And it counts what was actually billed for electricity, including fixed service charges, so it is not the same as multiplying your own usage by the advertised rate.
Looking for the rate rather than the bill? See New Jersey electricity prices by sector.