New Jersey Proposes Paying Home Battery Owners for Grid Support, With a 150 MW First Block
On 19 August the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities released a straw proposal for about 150 MW of behind-the-meter home batteries, paying owners for performance during grid stress events.
What is proposed
The proposal is Phase 2, Block 1 of the Garden State Energy Storage Program. It would add about 150 MW of storage statewide, focused on new residential batteries that sit behind the customer's meter. It supports the state's goal of 2,000 MW of energy storage by 2030.
Households that opt in would receive performance-based incentives, paid annually over a 10-year term. Payments would depend on how the battery performs during dispatch events, such as heatwaves or cold snaps. The four electric distribution companies would enrol customers, coordinate dispatch, track performance and make the payments under the Board's oversight.
Why regulators want it
The Board frames the payment as compensation for transmission, distribution and capacity services that home batteries can provide. It says the approach should lower utility costs and reduce the state's exposure to capacity prices in the PJM market, the regional power market New Jersey belongs to.
What is still open
This is a straw proposal, not a final programme. The Board has scheduled a virtual stakeholder meeting for 3 September and set a written comment deadline of 10 September, so the details could change. TaiyangNews also reports that a related virtual power plant proposal is expected before the Board in October.
We have not seen payment levels, and we could not find them in the material we read, so we cannot say what an owner would earn.
A UK comparison
The idea of paying households for flexibility is not unique to New Jersey. In Britain, similar thinking sits behind virtual power plants and flexible tariffs, as we covered in virtual power plants turn home batteries into grid assets. The details, rules and regulators are different, so a US scheme tells you nothing about what a UK household can earn.
Sources
- New Jersey Board of Public Utilities: NJBPU Advances Statewide Home Batteries Program with New Garden State Energy Storage Proposal
- TaiyangNews: Global Battery Storage News Snippets, 21 August 2026
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