In our spotlight on Business report.

Start saving now for your electric bill this summer.

The price of electricity is set to spike in June by more than $25 a month.

That's on average.

It comes following the latest electricity auction.

The state board of Public Utilities says the higher prices are being driven by increased demand and limited supply, thanks to delays in bringing new sources of electricity into the grid.

But consumer advocates point out that officials knew the rate hike was coming, yet failed to do enough to prevent it.

Ted Goldberg reports.

Any increase in your electric bills is a cause for concern for our customers.

While New Jersey's utility companies say they're concerned, a lot of New Jerseyans feel anger at seeing their electricity rates will jump as much as 20% this summer.

The price hikes affect all of New Jersey's big four electric companies.

But JCPenney's spokesman Chris Hoenig, says we shouldn't blame them.

Your supply charges are on your JCPenney bill.

We collect them with no markup.

We don't make a profit on those.

And we do that on behalf of the supplier.

The supplier is PJM, the operator of the power grid in New Jersey and 12 other states.

After the latest electricity auction.

New Jersey's Board of Public Utilities announced this week that the average residential electric bill will jump more than $25 a month this summer.

New Jersey is not not always able to supply all of the electricity that the state needs with the existing generation in the state.

So electrons flow back and forth throughout the PJM region.

PJM purchases electricity in an auction and then sells it to companies like JCPenney and PSEG to deliver throughout the state.

A PJM spokesman says policy is a major factor as to why we're experiencing this supply demand crunch.

Decarbonization policies have driven resources off of the system, while demand is increasing dramatically on the system due to data center proliferation and the on shoring of the manufacturing industry.

PJM is working expeditiously to bring more supply onto the system.

Experts say there's some truth to this, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

The supply is more expensive and demand isn't fully met.

So there's problems with the rules.

There's also problems with the amount of generation that's available.

A large amount of generator operation is held up at PJM.

We have to expedite approvals.

Earlier this week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a plan to fast track dozens of connection requests for PJM in an effort to bring more energy capacity online.

PJM also settled a lawsuit from Pennsylvania Governor Josh SHAPIRO this week, putting a price floor and price cap on the price of power for two years.

New Jersey needs to have a seat at the table, and we need to do the same thing.

You know, we should file a lawsuit.

We believe if all the other changes are made or other things fall into place, they the way we hope they do, people might actually make more money than they should with the floor.

In the meantime, Congressman Jeff Van Drew says the entire board of the BPU should resign, telling us in a statement for years they knew these rate hikes were coming.

Yet instead of working to protect consumers, they wasted time pushing their Green New Deal agenda.

They have ignored real solutions like nuclear, solar and natural gas while shutting down projects that could have helped BPU President Christine GROSS.

Adobe has defended the board, preferring green energy.

Many power plants and fossil power plants were built decades ago, and so solar and battery storage has advanced so significantly since those power plants plants were constructed that when they come on line, we have the ability to replace it with clean resource, those that are also helping to protect public health.

Assemblyman Cody Miller says the loss of offshore wind won't help New Jersey's supply issues or the economy in his district in South Jersey, which already dealt with price increases last year from Atlantic City Electric.

That was going to create thousands of jobs.

It was going to create investment in our economy.

It was going to allow us to produce more energy in the state of New Jersey.

And that's going to have a detrimental impact on us as well.

Higher prices for electricity could also have a detrimental impact on people's wallets, especially since the price jump will start in June, when people will start using more electricity to stay cool.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Ted Goldberg.