Beginning in August, more than 600,000 Chicago households will switch from the City’s municipal power deal with Constellation Energy back to ComEd, marking the end of the largest deal of its kind in the country. With the mass exodus of customers, Chicago residents need to be on high alert. The big…...
Electric competition: Not the money saver it once was
The times are a’changing. When electric competition began in northern Illinois, it seemed like a sure bet for savings. ComEd’s price at the time was high and electric customers could easily find deals by shopping the market of unregulated suppliers. But the era of easy savings is over, for now, in…...
Big Mistake: Spark Energy sends erroneous letters to suburban consumers
CUB wants to set the record straight about erroneous information Spark Energy has mailed to some Chicago-area residents. The Journal & Topics Newspapers reported that Buffalo Grove put out a news release about the alternative electricity supplier’s “false aggregation notice.” And Arlington Heights resident and CUB Litigation Director Julie Soderna…...
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…...
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…...
Chicagoans return to ComEd this fall
The City of Chicago has decided to end its two-year power deal with Integrys Energy Services—the largest of its kind in the country—after determining that residents would no longer save on their electric bills. Customers will return to ComEd, the regulated utility, starting September 2015. The City’s deal expires in May 2015, but…...
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…...
Electricity updates: The good, the bad, and the ugly
The last 24 hours have been a whirlwind of electricity-related developments. We’ve got some good news and bad news for Illinois consumers. First, the good. We’ve been saying for years that efficiency pays— and now we have the proof. A CUB analysis released this morning shows that the Illinois Clean Jobs…...
IL energy, cable & phone companies made $17.7 billion in 2014
The parent companies of Illinois’ major electric, cable, natural gas and phone companies made a total of $17.7 billion in profits last year, according to a CUB review of recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Comcast: The cable, phone and Internet giant saw its 2014 profits top $8.4 billion…...
