Millions of Illinois consumers are paying more to heat their homes in 2026. Read our guide below.
Gas-Bill Guide: New Developments
Rate Hikes: Ameren Illinois and Nicor Gas both received rate hikes in November of 2025, although not as much as they wanted. In 2026, several gas utilities are asking for more: In the first week of the year, Peoples Gas filed for a $202 million rate hike, and its sister company, North Shore Gas, filed for a $14.4 million increase. Also, shockingly, Nicor Gas filed for yet another hike–$221 million–about a month after burdening customers with its previous increase. CUB is challenging all of these increases. The gas utilities have been on a spending spree in recent years, and that has meant rapidly escalating bills across Illinois. For example….
- Since 2018, Ameren Illinois has raised rates by about $275 million, or about 70 percent.
- Since 2017, Nicor Gas has increased delivery rates five times, for a total of $898 million, or 137 percent.
- Since 2011, Peoples Gas has raised rates by $499 million, or 98 percent.
Volatile markets: Beginning last winter, after a few years of relative price stability, Illinois consumers have seen an uptick in gas prices. A major factor has been an increase in liquified gas exported out of the United States. In January 2026, CUB reported that gas prices were up for all 9 major Illinois gas utilities, by a range of about 6 percent t0 50 percent. See supply rates below to review what Illinois consumers are paying in January.
Gas-Bill Guide: Your Rates
Delivery Rates
What are delivery rates?
Gas bills have three major parts: delivery, supply and taxes/fees. All of us pay delivery rates to cover the utilities’ costs of sending gas through their pipes to our homes–plus a profit for the companies. Those delivery charges take up roughly half to two-thirds of gas bills. Check out our fact sheet: Making Sense of Your Gas Bill.
So what are we paying for delivery rates in 2026?
Monthly Customer Charge
This fixed monthly fee helps cover the utility’s administrative costs of doing business, such as billing, postage and customer assistance. Below is the fee for each utility and how it changed from the previous charge. CUB opposes high fixed fees because they are punitive to customers–they force people to pay the same fee each month, even if they are working hard to be more energy efficient.
Ameren Illinois: $23.33 (formerly $20.30). With supplemental charges*, this will appear on bills as approximately $24.52.
Nicor Gas: $21.30 (formerly $19.48). With supplemental charges*, this will appear on bills as approximately $22.46 for customers who do not have an alternative supplier and $22.33 for people who have an alternative supplier.
Peoples Gas: $25.81 (formerly $30.84). With supplemental charges*, this will appear on your bill as approximately $28.75.
North Shore Gas: $21.31 (formerly about $23.79). With supplemental charges*, this will appear on your bill as approximately $21.86.
*Note: Supplemental fees are added to the customer charge that help subsidize multiple programs–including those to cover energy costs for lower-income consumers; to develop renewable energy and clean-coal technology; and to help cover uncollectible costs. These fees can add $1-$3 to the customer charge. For this guide, CUB showed the customer charge that’s listed in the utilities’ tariffs and also estimated how the charge appears on bills, with these supplemental charges. Your bill may show a slightly different charge.
Distribution Charge
This per-therm charge helps to cover the costs of maintaining equipment/pipes and other costs not recovered through the customer charge. We never like to see this fee go up, but because it’s based on usage, customers can reduce the impact of this charge by practicing energy efficiency.
Ameren Illinois: 48.344 (formerly 43.776)
Nicor Gas: 24.44 cents per therm (formerly 21.34 cents per therm)
Peoples Gas: 46.583 cents per therm (formerly 19.477 cents)
North Shore Gas: 18.671 cents (formerly 12.896 cents)
Supply Rates
What are supply rates?
Supply rates cover the costs of the actual gas. Unlike delivery charges, the utilities are not allowed to profit off the supply rate. Under Illinois law, they must pass those costs from gas producers and marketers onto customers with no markup. State regulators annually review the utilities’ gas-management procedures to ensure the companies did a reasonable job with their gas purchases, given market conditions, to hold down costs for consumers as much as possible. Supply takes up roughly a third to a half of your gas bill. You can opt to pay an alternative supplier for these rates–but most likely your best bet is to stay with your utility for supply. (Read our tips to avoid bad alternative supplier deals.)
So what are the utilities charging for supply?
After a few years of relative price stability, gas supply rates are elevated. Supply prices can change on a monthly basis. For ongoing updates see our Gas page, where each month we publish the latest gas supply prices. These are the prices for January 2026:
Ameren Illinois– 48.36 cents per therm (UP about 6.3 percent from January 2025)
Consumers Gas– 42.36 cents per therm (UP about 7.7 percent from January 2025)
Illinois Gas– 58.11 cents per therm (UP about 17.6 percent from January 2025)
Liberty Utilities– 35.6 cents per therm (UP about 41.7 percent from January 2025)
MidAmerican Energy– 64.38 cents per therm (UP about 27.5 percent from January 2025)
Mt. Carmel– 61.52 cents per therm (UP about 13.5 percent from January 2025)
Nicor Gas– 42.00 cents per therm (UP about 50 percent from January 2025)
North Shore Gas– 53.23 cents per therm (UP about 19.1 from January 2025)
Peoples Gas– 41.81 cents per therm (UP about 24.9 percent from January 2025)
For information on how to reduce your gas bill, check out CUB’s Energy Efficiency page and reach out for a utility bill clinic consultation at [email protected]. Also, read about a discount program major gas utilities offer income-qualified customers.
