(Crain’s) — Commonwealth Edison Co. filed with state regulators for a rate hike that would increase the average household’s electric bill by 7%.
ComEd’s proposed $396-million increase, which must be approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission, would increase the average $86 monthly bill by about $6, the utility said.
The filing, which was expected, follows the utility’s audacious gambit at the end of the state’s legislative session in May to freeze electric bills for the next four years while making a $500-million contribution to help the state address its massive budget deficit.
That proposal, which also would have severely curtailed the ICC’s future role in determining delivery rates, was quickly dismissed by state lawmakers, some of whom likened it to a bribe to keep ComEd’s parent Exelon Corp. from seeing its profits fall as it becomes more exposed to today’s low wholesale power prices.
In that proposal, ComEd, the country’s largest operator of nuclear power plants, said it would forgo this rate hike. But the initiative’s failure led to today’s filing.
“ComEd is making key investments to ensure that our region has a modern and reliable electric system, which is critical to economic development in this state,” the utility’s president, Anne Pramaggiore, said in a release.
The ICC has 11 months to rule on the request. New rates wouldn’t take effect until then.
David Kolata, executive director of consumer watchdog Citizens Utility Board, said consumer advocates would fight to reduce the increase. “The rate request couldn’t come at a worse possible time, with a struggling economy,” he said.
He said the fact that ComEd only months before had offered to freeze rates while making a big contribution to the state “is certainly going to increase (consumers’) level of skepticism going in.”
Another wild card for ComEd is the current makeup of the ICC.
With three of the five members, including new Chairman Manuel Flores, viewed as “pro-consumer,” utilities are concerned about the handling of rate cases.
Downstate utility Ameren Corp. was enraged earlier this year when the ICC approved just $105 million of its $226-million rate request.
Gov. Pat Quinn appointed Mr. Flores, a former Chicago alderman, as chairman in January. But Mr. Flores and another Quinn appointee from late last year have yet to be confirmed by the state Senate.
That is not expected before the November election, raising the possibility that replacements could be named if Mr. Quinn loses to state Sen. Bill Brady, the Republican nominee.
That could have a significant effect on how much of ComEd’s rate request is approved.
ComEd’s rate hike applies only to the cost of delivering power to its 3.8 million customers in northern Illinois. The cost of the power itself is determined through procurements in the competitive market by the Illinois Power Agency.
