Community Corner

ComEd Seeks Rate Hike

The utility will use the new revenues to pay for "smart-grid" costs.

Commonwealth Edison Co. has filed to boost its electricity rates by nearly a dollar per month next year to finance local power-grid improvements it's making under the 2011 “smart grid” law that permitted the utility to hike its charges annually per a set formula, Crain's Chicago Business is reporting.

ComEd's rate on an average residential bill will climb 97 cents from today's rates, Crain's reported from an April 30 news release.

The Illinois Commerce Commission will review the request under provisions in the new law that sharply curtail regulators' leeway to reject the utility's costs and profit margins.

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ComEd's delivery rates actually will decline from June though December of 2012 because its authorized return under the law is less than the return last approved by the ICC under the old rules. But rates then will climb again in 2013, according to Crain's.

The law authorizes ComEd to recover from ratepayers $2.6 billion over the next decade, in part to outfit all 3.8 million of its residential and business customers with so-called “smart meters” that enable the utility to record customer usage remotely and allow consumers to save on their bills by using fewer appliances during high-demand periods. In addition, ComEd will upgrade aging parts of its local grid.

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