ComEd filed for a four-year, $1.47 billion rate increase Tuesday with the Illinois Commerce Commission to bolster its grid for the demands of EVs, electrification and climate change.
If approved by state regulators, ComEd customers will pay an average of $17 per month more for delivery charges by 2027, the utility said. The ICC will review the rate and grid plans and is expected to issue a decision by December.
The rate request comes as ComEd is grappling with political fallout from a lobbying scandal involving top executives and power brokers set for trial in March. In 2020, ComEd agreed to pay a $200 million fine in exchange for federal prosecutors dropping charges against the utility in an alleged bribery scheme to pass favorable legislation.
Among those charged in connection with the scandal are former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, longtime lobbyist Michael McClain and former ComEd CEO Ann Pramaggiorre.
“We recognize that the events that were outlined in the deferred prosecution agreement are serious,” ComEd spokesman Paul Elsberg said. “We take them seriously, and we’re continuing to build on significant new policies and oversight and training of employees to make sure that that past conduct can never happen again.”
ComEd said the proposed rate increase is necessary to meet the state’s clean energy goals, despite a potentially unfavorable political climate of its own making.
The $1.47 billion request would spread the cost over four years, with the average residential monthly bill increasing by $6.72 in 2024; $5.73 in 2025; and $6.20 in 2026. ComEd projects monthly bills would decrease by $1.67 in the fourth year of the plan, bringing the total increase to about $17 per month by 2027.
Last year, ComEd filed for a proposed $199 million increase in electricity delivery charges, its largest rate hike since 2014. That was approved by the ICC in December and projected to add about $2.20 per month to the average residential customer bill this year.
The latest request is part of the state’s Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, a clean energy bill requiring Illinois utilities to get 40% of their power from renewable sources by 2030. ComEd’s grid improvement plan includes connecting to a projected fivefold increase in rooftop and community solar systems, and meeting the demands of widespread electric vehicle adoption.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has set the goal of having 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030. There is still a long way to go, with 57,311 EVs registered in Illinois as of late December, or less than 1% of the state’s 10.3 million vehicles.
Last year, ComEd received a record 19,292 applications from residential and business customers looking to connect solar panels to the grid.
Michelle Blaise, ComEd’s senior vice president of technical services, said the existing grid “wasn’t designed” to handle the two-way flow of power into the grid from distributed energy resources such as home rooftop solar installations, and needs to be upgraded as the technology gains wider use.
Likewise, the adoption of EVs could dramatically increase electricity demand on the grid, adding upward of 40% to the load used by a single-family home.
“We need to make sure that our equipment will be able to handle that additional load,” Blaise said.
ComEd’s multiyear grid plan also includes girding for more severe weather events caused by climate change through upgrading and replacing outdated equipment and improved coordination with communities for faster power restoration during storms, the utility said.
Chicago-based Exelon, the parent of ComEd, spun off Constellation, its former power generation subsidiary, into a stand-alone company in February 2022. ComEd delivers electricity to more than 4 million customers across northern Illinois.
In a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Exelon said ComEd’s proposed rate increase projects annual returns on common equity for shareholders to grow from 10.5% in 2024 to 10.65% in 2027.
Abe Scarr, director of Illinois PIRG, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, said ComEd has more than doubled its delivery rates since 2012, pending approval of the latest proposed increase. He questioned whether the $1.47 billion rate increase was necessary to meet the state’s clean energy goals.
“ComEd will no doubt justify its massive proposed rate hike by the need to invest in the grid to transition to clean energy,” Scarr said in a statement. “But as vital as the clean energy transition is, it cannot mean a blank check for ComEd to raise rates and fatten Exelon’s profits.”
For Chicago-area utility customers, the proposed ComEd increase is the latest blow to their monthly budget.
Earlier this month, Peoples Gas filed for a proposed $402 million rate increase that would continue to fund its costly pipeline replacement program and add $11.83 per month to the average Chicago residential customer bill beginning in January 2024.
In the suburbs, North Shore Gas filed for an $18.5 million rate increase that would add about $6 per month, while Nicor Gas is seeking a $321 million rate increase that would add $9.28 per month to the average residential customer bill next year.
“ComEd’s four-year, $1.5 billion request is terrible news on top of the record rate-hike requests that customers are already dealing with from Nicor Gas and Peoples Gas,” David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, said in a statement. “We will scrutinize ComEd’s filing to challenge every penny the company can’t justify.”