Electric bills are about to jump by an average of $10.60 a month due to increased power demand across the country. A consumer organization also blames the electric grid operator. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file
By Brett Chase | Chicago Sun*Times
ComEd customers are about to see a big spike in their electric bills.
As the Chicago Sun-Times reported in November, the demand for power from big data centers and a delay in connecting new power sources, such as solar and wind, to the electric grid is resulting in ComEd customers seeing their monthly bills go up $10.60 a month on average.
Most customers won’t see this increase until their July bills are delivered, a spokesperson for the utility said. The higher prices may remain until May of next year.
Power demand across the country has skyrocketed as big data centers and artificial intelligence operations have created huge demand. Meanwhile, new sources of renewable energy, including wind and solar power, have been slow to get connected to an electric grid that spans from Northern Illinois to the East Coast, said Jim Chilsen, a spokesperson for the consumer watchdog Citizens Utility Board.
“Those generators could bring down prices,” Chilsen said of the solar and wind projects.
Coal plants in Illinois and across the country have been closing, and the state has promoted cleaner renewable sources under a 2021 law aimed at fighting climate change. The problem is that new renewable energy isn’t getting connected fast enough to meet surging demand at the very time older sources of power, such as coal, are being shut down.
Chilsen blamed policies set by the electric grid operator, an organization known as PJM, for the difficulty bringing renewables on line.
“Of course data centers that drive up demand play a role,” Chilsen said, “but the No. 1 reason is poor policy.”
State lawmakers also need to pass legislation that will help get renewable energy projects up and running, he added.
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