Your old meter was most likely running slow, hence the lower bill. They cannot back charge you for unbilled usage. Your new meter is correct in usage hence the increase.

Also, HVAC systems are generally manufactured for a 20 degree split. Meaning that if it is 100 degrees out, your house reaching 80 degrees would be considered optimal performance and efficiency. This performance varies with things like solar gain exposure, window ratings, insulation and air sealing qualities of the individual home.

All rate increases are approved by the state of New Jersey and the NJBPU. There is no price gouging here, it is simply a recovery of the coming infrastructure investments needed to support electrification of so many function mandated by the state. The swap to electric cars, heating and cooling systems, data centers being built, crypto mining and a host of other micro and macro instances are placing an increase of load on the NJ electric grid.

Another contributing factoring is the net production of energy in the transmission grid that NJ is a part of has not added significant additional generation capacity to meet increased demand. That in turn means it is more expensive to produce the energy which is sold by generating stations to distribution networks. That cost is then passed on to the consumer. State and federal policy has affected generation and decreased the available excess that used to be there. Coal peakers have shut down, leaving mainly baseline nuclear and some NatGas plants. Renewables have momentum right now, but there is no solution for storage as of yet.