ComEd customers’ electric bill to increase by six percent in Illinois

The Illinois Commerce Commission has granted Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) a delivery service rate increase of approximately $270 million.

This increase will raise the average residential customer’s monthly bill by approximately $4.50 on an average $81 monthly bill.

As per the information available, ComEd originally requested a $360 million increase last October to reflect higher costs of materials used to maintain and upgrade infrastructure, including power wires and utility poles. The increase will largely pay for the modernisation of the electricity infrastructure, replacing a century-old network of transmission lines with a smart grid.

The new rates are related only to the costs that ComEd incurs to deliver electricity to its customers.

“This increase is necessary to respond to higher infrastructure improvement costs and to support growing demand,” said Anne Pramaggiore, executive vice president of customer operations, regulatory and external affairs for ComEd.

ComEd will engage with the ICC and others to explore new Smart Grid technologies in order to empower its customers to make wiser energy choices. The ICC gave ComEd the green light to study Smart Grid technologies further as part of the utility’s proposal for a System Modernization Rider, and then to work collaboratively with other interested parties to consider smart grid issues. The collaborative effort will be followed by a formal docket filed with the ICC leading to adoption of smart grid goals, according to an ICC news release.