By Marina Minic
Solar Programs Coordinator
Nearly a year after ComEd’s switch to a new billing system sparked frustrating billing problems for many customers, people are still reporting problems, including participants in Illinois’ groundbreaking Community Solar program–like me! I’ll explain my own experience with ComEd’s current billing mess to show that you aren’t alone–this billing issue is leaving us scratching our heads too.
First off, my message to ComEd is: Fix this, please! And to my fellow Community Solar customers: I feel your pain! If you are experiencing the billing problems I outline here, please reach out to ComEd’s Green Power Connection team (1-800-825-5436) to alert them to your issues and ensure there are no extra charges on your bills. It’s important to stay on top of any odd or new charges on your bill at this time, especially as money is tight for many consumers.
One of the worst parts of ComEd’s billing problems is that they have created stumbling blocks for a great program in Illinois: Community Solar. As CUB’s solar programs coordinator, you all know I’m a big believer in solar power as a way to make the electricity grid cleaner while saving energy and money for consumers. It’s part of CUB’s mission to show Illinoisans how clean energy can cut their utility bills–but billing problems from ComEd make it difficult to connect consumers to these strong clean energy programs.
Why I love Community Solar
Illinois’ Community Solar program is perfect for me as a renter. In the past, using solar energy wasn’t an option for those who live in apartments, those with too much shade on their property, or those who simply aren’t quite ready to take the leap with their own panel installation. Community Solar changed all that over the last decade.
The Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA) started Community Solar here in Illinois in 2016, allowing consumers to save money on their electric bills from energy produced by offsite community solar projects (also called solar gardens), similar to how you would save if you installed panels on your own property. Here’s how it works:
The owner of the Community Solar garden pays the upfront costs to build, maintain and connect the garden to the utility’s power grid. People then subscribe to a portion of the project’s monthly output–an amount the community solar provider determines from analyzing your household’s energy demand.
Each month, you pay your community solar provider for the amount of electricity generated by your subscription. Then the provider reports the output of your subscription to the utility, and the utility company adds credits to your bill equal to that output. (Note: Usually the community solar billing amount is a month or two behind.)
Often, Community Solar participants are issued separate bills from the owner of the Community Solar garden, but more and more owners have been attempting to move to a convenient consolidated billing approach, where everything (Community Solar credits and charges) appears together on your ComEd bill.
ComEd’s billing problems–a deep dive
While CUB has received reports of billing problems from Community Solar customers in general, this blog will focus on consolidated billing issues. The problems include
- Visual billing glitches;
- Lack of bills for months on end;
- Incomplete charges.
So how do these problems look on my bill? I’ll give you a few examples:
Example 1: In the billing example below–with the name and phone number of my provider blacked out–it appears that my Community Solar subscription generated NO energy during the billing period. (NOT true.) (Note: We’re told this has been resolved.)
Example 2: The bill below gave me the initial impression that I was being double- or triple-charged for Community Solar. I wasn’t–thank goodness–but it required a hard, line-by-line review to confirm that. So customers, I believe, aren’t actually being overcharged–but it sure looks that way because the line item ($11.59 on my bill below) is repeated. (Note: We’re told this has been resolved.)
Example 3: This one is more complicated, and we believe it’s ongoing. Basically ComEd is failing to clearly and fully add Community Solar charges to monthly bills. For example, if a customer owes $100 on the bill, they are only charged $80. That $20 difference should be equal to a Community Solar credit that is supposed to be added to your next bill–a month behind. This issue can be easy to spot by going to your “Account History” (see image below) and looking at “All Bills and Payments.” If the bill total is different from the bill payment total, you are most likely experiencing this issue.
I only came to this conclusion after spending a few days examining my own bills. But it’s part of my job to spend time studying this type of thing–your average Community Solar customer should not have to spend their free time and energy trying to figure this out.
If you are experiencing this issue, I recommend reaching out to ComEd’s Green Power Connection team (1-800-825-5436) for an explanation. If you are NOT on autopay, you should make sure you have not been overpaying ComEd. This may show up as balance on your account– if you pay manually each month, watch your bill to avoid overpaying.
Experiencing billing problems? Let ComEd know
I wish I could say this is the only billing problem customers are facing, but it’s not. For the past year, we’ve been hearing about ComEd customers, and in the last rate case, we successfully got regulators to hold off on granting ComEd the authority to charge customers $29.5 million in IT costs connected to the billing problems. Over the last year, we have argued that customers shouldn’t have to pay for a “billing mess” of ComEd’s own making. Regulators are taking a closer look before deciding on the $29.5 million issue that CUB raised.
Important:
- If you are a Community Solar customer experiencing billing issues, we are so sorry this is happening. Please call ComEd’s Green Power Connection team (1-800-825-5436).
- If you are experiencing general billing problems not associated with Community Solar, we are sorry this is happening as well. Please call the utility at 1-800-334-7661.
It’s important to make ComEd aware of these problems and to ensure there are no extra charges on your bill.
