Editorial: Why your Commonwealth Edison electric bills are skyrocketing and the state is no help

For the second straight summer, Commonwealth Edison customers will see their electricity rates jump.

Beginning next month, ComEd rates for households will rise by at least 12% on average. Last summer, the increase was about 10% before rates fell back down at the beginning of this year due to a generous - but temporary - bill credit.

As with all things energy related, the reasons for the coming consumer pain are complicated.

But boiled down, the spike is due mainly to the phaseout starting next month of part of the aforementioned temporary bill credit for ComEd customers based on a state law that for now requires the owner of Illinois’ six nuclear power stations to compensate ComEd customers when power prices are high.

Also responsible are higher costs throughout the multistate power grid that includes northern Illinois for ensuring power plants deliver when they're most needed - a result in part of increasing power demand from data centers.

None of those explanations are likely to make Chicagoland residents feel any better when they open their electric bills during the hot-weather months to come.

The current average monthly ComEd household bill is $107, the utility tells us. The credit customers have been receiving since January is about $13 on average. So right there, the average bill will increase 12%. Add in an increase of another $2 to $3 per month due to the higher power prices, according to ComEd, and the average household is looking at something like a $122 monthly bill.

And that's not even accounting for expected higher usage as the temperature rises and those air conditioners start humming.

For some context, the average residential ComEd bill at the beginning of 2023 was just $93. By this summer, that bill will have inflated by more than 30%.

And there's more of this to come. The remainder of the bill credit ComEd customers receive from Constellation Energy, the nuclear plant owner, is set to expire a year from now, teeing up yet another increase in electric bills in the summer of 2027.

We've been critical of the state's landmark Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, or CEJA, enacted in 2021 and aimed at more or less eliminating the burning of fossil fuels by Illinois' power-generation industry by 2045. But one key part of that law has worked better than even its architects could have imagined.

Back in 2021, power prices were much lower than they are now, and Illinois' nuke owner threatened to shut down three plants unless it got a ratepayer-funded bailout. Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration approved a five-year rescue plan but structured the arrangement so that if power prices soared, customers would be rebated the difference over an agreed-to price. That deal has kept ComEd bills from rising more than they would have otherwise.

How much? That amount has fluctuated over the five-year period, but ComEd says average monthly residential bills this summer would be a dollar higher without the rebate.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. Theoretically, the state could ask Constellation to negotiate another similar deal, but given where power prices are now and the continued upward pressure applied by data centers, the company has little incentive if any to re-up. So, once the deal is done, ComEd customers most likely will be fully exposed to whatever the power markets have in store.

These trends make Springfield Democrats' inaction on fixing problems in CEJA that are contributing to higher bills all the more inexplicable to us. We've laid outtwice now how the law's ill-thought-out deadlines for closing a large number of natural gas-fired plants by 2030 have led to industry deals that not only will keep those facilities running past 2030 but will most likely ensure the power they generate won't benefit ComEd customers. We've seen no move in Springfield to make simple fixes to the statute in response.

For the most part, ComEd isn't responsible for the supply-and-demand issues that are driving up power prices and electric bills.

But in response to utility-bill inflation, state regulators have ordered ComEd and other utilities to create bill subsidy programs for low-income households. The idea is to keep residents from paying more than 6% of their income on energy bills.

ComEd launched its low-income subsidy program this year. To finance the assistance, it's charging the rest of its ratepayers a new fee. For now, that charge is a flat $1.35 per month for household customers, regardless of how much electricity they consume.

So a lakefront mansion on the North Shore is paying the same "low-income discount recovery" charge as the inhabitant of a studio apartment in Chicago.

That's unfair on its face. And given the trajectory of electric bills this year and next year, the need for such help will only rise. As will those charges.

The state of Illinois needs to get in the game and fix the parts of its own law that are contributing to consumers' financial pain. And ComEd can do its small part to help by creating a fairer method of apportioning costs to help those in need.

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This story was originally published May 18, 2026 at 5:16 AM.