Central and Southern Illinois residents witnessed a huge jump in electricity prices this summer following an electric auction that gave power generators like Dynegy a windfall. We are calling on FERC to investigate the price spike to weed out any problems connected to how electricity prices are set in Illinois. The agency…...
Why Northern Illinois should care about the rate hikes in Central and Southern Illinois
Lately we’ve been discussing an Illinois electricity auction that sparked a 12-35% price spike for many Central and Southern Illinois customers. The spike was due to an increase in capacity prices—what consumers pay to ensure power plants can deliver electricity on the highest-demand days of the year. Every spring, MISO (the…...
IL Attorney General: Stop rate hikes in Southern and Central IL!
Let’s pump the brakes on these Ameren rate hikes. That’s the message coming loud and clear from the Illinois Attorney General’s office. And it’s a message CUB wholeheartedly echoes. AG Lisa Madigan and consumer advocate group Public Citizen petitioned federal regulators yesterday to overturn a recent electricity auction that will lead to huge…...
Another Ameren rate hike?
Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, Ameren drops this bombshell: a $110 million rate-hike request to ostensibly pay for upgrades to the power grid. CUB Executive Director David Kolata had this to say: If done right, Ameren’s power grid improvements have the potential to benefit all its…...
New power prices in Illinois
Summer is around the corner, bringing with it warm days, sunshine, flowers, and…new electric rates. ComEd customers can breathe a little easier starting June 1, as the utility’s price to compare will drop to 7.04¢/kWh through Sept. 30. That’s a decrease of about 7 percent from the current rate (7.572¢/kWh). Ameren…...
Editorial roundup: the battle to protect electric customers in Springfield
Springfield is abuzz with two very different pieces of energy legislation, one that could help electric customers and another that could hurt them. One is the Illinois Clean Jobs bill (House Bill 2607/Senate Bill 1485), which would increase energy efficiency and renewable energy standards in Illinois. A CUB analysis found that the…...
Utilities stand in the way of money-saving pricing plans
If there was a program that could reduce demand on the power grid AND lower your electric bills AND cut harmful pollution, you would think that was a pretty good plan, right? The big electric companies disagree. CUB recently asked state regulators to explore the idea of ComEd and Ameren offering an optional…...
Hey FERC: Investigate the rate hike!
Ameren customers recently received terrible news: Power prices will skyrocket June 1. It’s all because of an exponential increase in capacity costs—what consumers pay to ensure power plants are able to deliver electricity on the highest-demand days of the year. The average household could see electric bills rise by as much as $150 annually…...
