ComEd Seeks Rate Hike—But It Won't Affect Geneva

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.

But the rate increase will not affect Geneva, which provides is own electric utility service, Geneva's Electric Department superintendent said Wednesday. Geneva provides much of its own electric power—through its own generator, methane gas generators from Settler's Hill Landfill but it also purchases wholesale electricity from other sources.

Mike Buffington, the city of Geneva's superintendent of electric, said that those smart-grid improvement costs won't be passed along to Geneva.

"No," he said. "We do use ComEd's 345 System to bring power in, but it won't impact (Geneva customers.)"

ComEd's rate on an average residential bill will climb 97 cents, 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.

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. Also, ComEd will upgrade aging parts of its local grid.