Under The Electric Discount and Energy Competition Act (EDECA), any organization that sells power supply or natural gas must be registered and approved by the BPU as an “energy supplier.” In addition, any individual or organization that assists customers (including government agencies) in procuring energy supply must be registered with the BPU as an “energy agent” or “energy consultant.” This means that contracting units must ensure that individuals or organizations aiding the procurement must be a registered energy agent. Information on licensed energy agents and energy supplies is on the BPU website.

EDECA defines an energy agent as “a person duly registered pursuant to the provisions of this act, that arranges the sale of retail electricity or electric related services or retail gas supply or gas related services between government aggregators or private aggregators and electric power suppliers or gas suppliers, but does not take title to the electric or gas sold.” In this case, a government aggregator is defined as an individual government agency buying for itself, or a government agency that serves as a lead agency for other government organizations to facilitate the purchase of energy (a cooperative).

BPU regulations (N.J.A.C. 14-4-5.1) specifically require that a person shall not arrange the sale of electricity or gas supply between a government aggregator and a third party supplier without first registering as an energy agent. The BPU also registers “energy consultants” that are energy agents with the added authority to obtain customer energy usage electronic data from utility companies. Contracting units must be sure that whoever is assisting them with energy procurement needs is properly registered with the BPU.

New Jersey residents can shop for the lowest price with third-party suppliers. Local electric or natural gas distribution companies still deliver the supplies through wires or pipes – and respond to emergencies – but the supplies themselves are purchased from other companies.

Purchasing your energy supplies from a company other than your electric or gas utility is purely an economic decision; it has no impact on the reliability or safety of your service.