Phius Senior Policy Analyst Isaac Elnecave details the recent introduction of a New Jersey incentive program that includes Phius.
The New Jersey Clean Energy Program (administered by the Board of Public Utilities) recently introduced a new New Construction Program (NCP) geared toward high-performance buildings that incorporates incentives for achieving Phius Certification.
The program, introduced on May 1, 2025, covers single-family, multifamily and commercial buildings. Importantly, both the single-family and multifamily portions of the program include incentives for Phius Certification.
In addition, to support this program, incentives have also been included for workforce development. This includes reimbursement for the Phius Certified Consultant (CPHC®), Phius Certified Builder (CPHB), Phius Certified Rater and Phius Certified Verifier training programs. Individuals taking the training are eligible for a reimbursement of $2,000 per course for successful completion leading to certification (or up to 100% of the course fee if the course costs less than $2,000).
For more information about the workforce development incentives, visit the program website here.
The building program has three pathways: Bundled, Streamlined and High Performance. There are three tiers within the High Performance Pathway: Energy Star, Zero Energy Ready Homes and Phius. For this blog post, we will focus on the High Performance Pathway, which is most relevant to Phius projects. The incentives offered are quite generous, ranging from $1 to $2.50 per square foot depending on the tier chosen.
The NCP will pay a base incentive $2.50/square foot for projects certifying to:
As an example, for a 2,700-square-foot single-family home, building to Energy Star will generate a $1/square foot incentive or $2,700. For a Zero Energy Ready Home project, the program will pay out $1.75/square foot. A Phius project will bring in the highest incentive total of $2.50/square foot (for this example, that pencils out to be $6,750).
On top of this incentive, the program also adds a greenhouse gas bonus for projects that go beyond and include additional energy efficiency or renewable energy. For a Phius project, this bonus can range from $0.25 to $1.50 per square foot. For example, a 2,700-square-foot home would receive a base incentive of $6,750. It could also receive additional money depending on greenhouse gas reduction of between $675 and $4,050.
A similar approach is taken for multifamily buildings. The same three tiers exist with the same level of incentives: $1/square foot for Energy Star, $1.75/square foot for ZERH and $2.50/square foot for Phius. In addition, the greenhouse gas bonus ranges from $0.25/square foot to $1.50/square foot). This means that a 70,000-square-foot multifamily project certified to the Phius standard can receive up to $280,000.
Importantly, the program sets a minimum and maximum area. The minimum area is 2,000 square feet, meaning that even homes less than 2,000 square feet will receive $5,000. The maximum area is 4,000 square feet, therefore, the maximum amount of the base incentive (without the Greenhouse Gas Reduction) is $10,000. There is no minimum or maximum area for multifamily buildings.
For more information, visit the program page on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities website.
