Released: 10/31/2007
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ON October 11, the Illinois Commerce Commission approved implementation of new electric rate design formulas for Commonwealth Edison and the Ameren utilities.
The revised rate formulas were structured to more evenly distribute rate increases that took effect for utility customers in January 2007, following the end of a nine-year transition to a fully deregulated electric industry. The revised rates should help to mitigate the impact of large bill increases for residential electric space heating customers and some commercial customers.
ICC Chairman Charles Box said he was pleased with the way all of the parties in the case worked together to resolve the impact of the January rate increases. “I want to thank Commission staff, ComEd and the Ameren Illinois utilities and all of the other parties who worked so diligently to achieve this equitable result,” he said.
The process began in March, when the ICC initiated a new case to consider the extraordinary impact new electric rates had on some electricity customers and to come up with a rate structure that was more “just and reasonable.”
Ameren and ComEd customers whose rates increased by the largest percentage included residential electric space heating customers and those with greater usage, as well as some Ameren commercial customers whose rates went from a per kwh charge to a flat demand charge. Ameren customers affected by this change included medium and large non-residential customers who used twenty percent or less of their annual electricity in the summer months.
ICC spokesperson Beth Bosch said one change in rate design involves widening the gap between so-called “winter rates” and “summer rates” that customers pay for electricity. As a result, customers who heat their homes with electricity will pay lower rates in the winter, when they use a lot of electricity, and higher rates in the summer, when their power consumption usually decreases.
The new rate design should take effect December 1, 2007.
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