ComEd’s price for electricity is up around 60 percent over last summer, but David Kolata, executive director of the Citizen Utility Board (CUB), said the average residential consumer should see lower bills this summer compared to last year.
The credit should arrive thanks to a clean energy bill Illinois lawmakers passed in 2021 called the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which was meant to help keep financially at-risk nuclear power plants online.
The Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, though, carried a stipulation: If power plants made money, consumers would get credits. If they lost money, consumers would be on-the-hook for a surcharge. Kolata said that’s why consumers may see a decrease in their electricity bills.
“This credit will average about $18 – $20 for the typical residential customer, depending upon how much you use,” Kolata said.
CUB is a nonprofit utility watchdog group that was created by the Illinois Legislature to represent the interests of residential and small-business utility customers.
Although Kolata said the average consumer may see credits large enough that rising energy prices could be offset — and in some cases, consumers could even save money — he added that this won’t happen in every single case.
Kolata advised consumers to be wary of rip-offs from alternative electricity suppliers offering cheaper prices. He said they and ComEd pay the same for electricity.
“At the end of the day, all the suppliers, ComEd included, are kind of shopping at the same market,” Kolata said. “What we’ve seen, historically speaking, is that it’s really, really, really, really difficult for alternative suppliers to get a better deal than the utility price.”
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