New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities (BPU) on Aug. 14 awarded $3.4 million in grants to 18 proposals under a new program designed to help municipalities implement clean energy projects — including funds for one municipality to purchase its first electric police car. 

The awards, to 16 municipalities, made under the first-ever Community Energy Plan Implementation (CEPI) Grant Program, provide support to help implement what the BPU says are “high-priority, high-impact, practical and cost-effective municipal projects supporting energy resilience, renewable energy and energy efficiency.” 

Municipalities can apply for $250,000 under the program. In addition to unanimously approving the $3.4 million, the board also approved nearly $1.15 million for 92 grants in the agency’s Community Energy Plan Grant Program (CEPG). That 3-year-old program awards grants of up to $25,000 for local governments to develop clean energy plans, while the CEPI funds support project implementation. 

Board President Christine Guhl-Sadovy said she was “super excited” to see the awards move ahead. 

“I think it’s really exciting to see this funding going to municipalities to help with their electrification and energy efficiency goals and align with the state’s energy master plan,” she said. She later added in a press release that “as the climate crisis intensifies, every New Jersey municipality must be equipped to face its wide-ranging effects and unique impacts on individual communities.” 

The CEPI funds awarded to seven municipalities will pay for the installation of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. Two municipalities will spend the money on weatherization or energy efficiency projects. The program awarded $160,000 for Westfield Township to buy its first department EV, according to a list of recipients. 

Atlantic City and Pleasantville City each will receive $250,000 for energy improvements in city hall buildings, and a $250,000 grant will help Maplewood Township install a heat pump at the town’s police and municipal court building. 

BPU Commissioner Zenon Christodoulou welcomed the program awards and noted that 40% of the projects are awarded to overburdened communities. Twenty-nine municipalities submitted 88 projects under the CEPI program. 

“We didn’t have as many applicants as I would have hoped, maybe even would have expected,” he said before voting in support of the awards. “So maybe they feel that they don’t have the technical expertise. Hopefully we could assist them to ease that process so more overburdened communities could apply for these grants and help them directly, which I think is one of the main things we’ve been looking to do with that program.” 

In the CEPG program, the BPU awarded only 15 grants of $25,000, the largest possible grant, which is awarded to overburdened communities. The remaining 77 projects will receive $10,000, the amount awarded to applicants from non-overburdened communities. 

EV Police Pursuit Vehicle

Sgt. Gregory Penn, who helped plan the application for Westfield Township, said the award will fund the purchase of a Chevrolet Blazer PPV, which has a range of about 250 miles and can do 130 miles per hour. It is possibly the only EV model on the market that meets the standards for a police pursuit vehicle, Penn said. 

The township, with 63 officers, has 30 patrol cars, six of which are hybrid Ford Escapes. Since their arrival, the cars have significantly cut department fuel costs and showed how little maintenance is needed compared to vehicles powered solely by an internal combustion engine, he said.  

That helped pave the way to going all electric, Penn said. 

“I own a Tesla myself, so I saw the benefits,” he said. “I commute about 50 miles each way to work, and I have zero maintenance on that car, except for tires and windshield wipers.” 

The township has no EVs or municipal chargers at present, although six public chargers are available in the community, he said. The CEPI funds will pay for the municipality to install the infrastructure for Level 2 chargers, and the department will work out how to plan the vehicle’s use to allow for a charging period each day, he said. 

“I’m not saying that we can maybe completely eliminate our internal combustion vehicles right now,” Penn said. “But we’re definitely, I think, on a good way to incorporate more fully electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles into our fleet.” 

The BPU awarded the Borough of Madison two grants of $100,000 each under the CEPI. One will pay to install air-source heat pumps into the 93-year-old historic Hartley Dodge Memorial Borough Hall. The historic building “will be going through a renovation in our East Wing, which will include new heating and cooling,” and the borough’s Climate Action Committee recommended it include heat pump installation, spokesperson Michael Pellessier said. 

The second grant will fund the retrofit of the Heller Center, a Masonic lodge building that will be 200 years old next May. The borough will bring it up to building code requirements, and the East Wing will be all electric, with a mix of heat pumps and electric water heating, Pellessier said. 

Once renovated, it will be used as a senior center and public community space, he said. 

“Our experts have run numbers and expect that once completed, our heating and other costs should be decreased once the heat pumps are installed and operational,” he said. “Madison is progressive on our green actions and is always looking at ways that we can make for a greener Madison and [is] committed to projects like these. The grants that we have received make these projects even more possible and allow us to allocate funds elsewhere for other green initiatives.” 

Offshore Wind Advance

The BPU also voted unanimously to advance the agency’s fifth offshore wind solicitation and start a search for a consultant to help develop the process. 

The board voted to put out a request for qualification (RFQ) developed by agency staff seeking an expert to help develop and issue solicitation guidance documents and evaluate applications ready for final selection.  

Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in May directed the BPU to advance the fifth solicitation by 15 months to make up time lost when Danish Developer Ørsted abandoned two of the state’s first three projects in October. (See NJ Accelerates OSW Plans Again.) 

The BPU on July 10 said it received three proposals for the fourth solicitation and the agency’s timeline calls for it to award contracts by the end of 2024. The fifth solicitation is expected to open by the end of the second quarter of 2025. (See 3 OSW Proposals Submitted to NJ.) 

The BPU also took steps to conclude business with the two defunct Ørsted projects. The commissioners voted unanimously to vacate the orders approving the two projects — Ocean Wind 1 and 2 — and to set aside approvals for easements on property owned by Ocean City and the County of Cape May. Ørsted had planned to run cable on the easements to a substation sited on a now-closed coal-fired power plant in Upper Township. 

The BPU order explaining the rationale for vacating the approvals said it was part of a settlement between Ørsted and the BPU over the fate of $200 million the developer committed in spring 2023 to put in escrow. The developer pledged the funds to persuade New Jersey to allow the two OSW projects to receive the benefits of federal tax credits that otherwise would go to the state. The state agreed, giving Ørsted the tax credit benefits, then demanded the $200 million when the developer abandoned its two Ocean Wind projects. 

The two sides settled in May, when Ørsted agreed to pay the state $125 million. The agreement, according to the order approved by the BPU on Aug. 14, also stated that “for the avoidance of doubt, Ørsted will move to vacate” the project approvals and permissions for the easements. 

“State consents to such vacation and agrees to take all action reasonably necessary to effectuate such vacation,” according to the order.