{"id":101,"date":"2018-11-10T06:17:50","date_gmt":"2018-11-10T12:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.njenergyratings.com\/blog\/?p=101"},"modified":"2018-11-07T16:00:21","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T22:00:21","slug":"pseg-leaving-retail-electricity-supply-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.njenergyratings.com\/blog\/pseg-leaving-retail-electricity-supply-business\/","title":{"rendered":"PSEG Leaving Retail Electricity Supply Business"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nuke
Its three New Jersey nuclear plants struggling, PSEG decided to wind down its retail electricity business to commerical customers.<\/em><\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Why did PSEG drop its retail supply operation?<\/span><\/h2>\n

After just 2 years, Public Service Enterprise Group \u00a0(PSEG) has made the decision to withdraw from the New Jersey retail electricity marketplace<\/b><\/a>. This represents a shift in priority for its parent company, PSEG Power, which owns around 18 MW of power-generating capacity. The business has been reasonably successful, according to top executives. So why is it dropping out of the market?<\/span><\/p>\n

Why did PSEG start up Energy Solutions?<\/span><\/h3>\n

In order to understand why they\u2019re leaving the marketplace, we should first take a look at why they entered it in the first place. They weren\u2019t seeking big profits – instead, they were looking to diversify<\/b><\/a>. The parent company\u2019s managing director, Tom Chamberlin, said in 2016 that their intention was \u201cto help hedge the power portfolio<\/i>\u201d. Chairman, CEO and president Ralph Izzo also framed the move as a defensive one, saying that it was \u201cnot a significant growth opportunity by any stretch of the imagination<\/i>\u201d. It\u2019s easy to see why – cheap New Jersey electricity rates<\/b><\/a>are available all over the state, making this market very competitive.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s Changed since then?<\/span><\/h3>\n

Given that PSEG wasn\u2019t expecting to make any money from their move, why have they decided to pull out now? The reason appears to lie with changes in the market. PSEG draws a great deal of its power capacity from its\u00a0three New Jersey nuclear plants<\/a>, Hope Creek, Salem I, and Salem II that are operated by its subsidiary, PSEG Power. With fracking providing abundant and cheap natural gas,<\/b>driving cheap New Jersey electricity rates<\/b><\/a>, PSEG was under pressure to diversify.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>In PSEG\u2019s press release, they state that \u201c[PSEG] has concluded that retail electric marketing will not provide a material enhancement to its hedging activity\u201d<\/i>. It sounds like although they were only hoping to backstop their other business areas, there isn\u2019t enough room to grow within thecurrent New Jersey retail electricity market<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

How will this affect my New Jersey electricity rates?<\/span><\/h3>\n

PSEG Energy Solutions sold electricity to businesses, not to residential customers. Since that business was separate from the PSEG parent company, residential customers will not see any\u00a0<\/span>difference in their monthly utility bills. Of course, there are continued concerns over the ongoing difficulties that PSEG Power\u2019s\u00a0nuclear generators have with their <\/span>ability to compete with cheap natural gas<\/b><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Although PSEG Power\u2019s nuclear capacity could conceivably be replaced by natural gas plants and renewables, it would take a lot of investment to make this happen. As PSEG struggles to make ends meet, though, it\u2019s not inconceivable that they might end up scaling back in other areas, too. They\u2019ve struggled to pay for the operating costs of their nuclear plants, and have made it clear that <\/span>if nuclear plants don\u2019t generate profits, PSEG won\u2019t keep running them<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Should I be worried about rising bills?<\/span><\/h3>\n

Although this latest development isn\u2019t cause for concern in itself, it\u2019s never too early to shop for a <\/span>cheap fixed-rate electricity deal in New Jersey<\/b><\/a>. If you lock in a long deal now, you could be protected for years to come even if rates do rise. It\u2019s a great idea to shop around, so make sure you visit https:\/\/www.njenergyratings.com\/electricity-rates<\/a>and save big on your monthly bills. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why did PSEG drop its retail supply operation? After just 2 years, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mbp_gutenberg_autopost":false},"categories":[11,10,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.njenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.njenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.njenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.njenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.njenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.njenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105,"href":"https:\/\/www.njenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions\/105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.njenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.njenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.njenergyratings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}