Rows of tall ComEd electrical towers follow a north-south pathway through Barrington Hills on May 23, 2023. | Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune
By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune
The politics of energy in Illinois are hot this summer. And they’re only going to get hotter.
Residents throughout the Chicago area only now are opening their electric bills and seeing the effect of our sweltering June, combined with substantially higher electricity rates, on their household budgets. With inflation top of mind for everyone, you can add the cost of keeping the lights on and the air conditioners humming to food, insurance, housing, health care and more items making it harder for ordinary folks simply to pay their bills every month.
A spike in the cost of energy that took effect June 1 along with higher usage in one of the hottest Junes Chicago has experienced resulted in a $67.28 increase in the average June 30 household electric bill, according to Commonwealth Edison. So far, July has been no picnic either in terms of heat and humidity, so next month’s bills aren’t likely to provide relief.
And, adding to the electric-bill angst, there was news Tuesday that next summer’s electric bills will see more upward pressure after the results of a power auction just completed by PJM Interconnection, the power-grid manager for a multistate territory running from northern Illinois east to the mid-Atlantic. The details of that auction are somewhat technical; PJM solicits bids from power generators and others for what the industry calls “capacity” and what effectively are promises from those power-plant operators to produce energy during high-demand periods over a year. The amount paid to those selected operators for those promises comes from power consumers throughout the PJM region — that is, virtually all households and businesses — and is embedded in the overall price they pay utilities or other suppliers for energy.
Much of the reason for this summer’s increase in ComEd rates is due to a spike in the current cost of capacity. That capacity cost will rise another 22% in the year beginning in June 2026 after PJM’s latest auction. ComEd says that change by itself will hike ComEd rates another 2%, raising the average residential bill by $2.50 per month.
Politicians and environmental groups, among others, are castigating PJM for the increases and blaming the grid operator for being too sluggish in approving high-voltage connections of renewable power sources such as wind farms to population centers.
Read more here.
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