Consumer Alert: ComEd summer power price elevated due to data center energy demand, CUB urges utility to keep customers connected

Consumer watchdog calls on General Assembly to pass POWER Act to protect customers from data center costs

     Commonwealth Edison customers face a second consecutive summer of high bills, largely due to soaring energy demand sparked by new and proposed data centers, the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) said recently. CUB urged ComEd to work with customers struggling to afford their bills this summer and called on the Illinois General Assembly to pass reforms to protect customers from unfair data center-related energy costs.  

According to a tariff ComEd filed May 15, the utility’s summer supply rate, June through September, is: 

10.399 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). (This rate includes the supply price and a transmission charge.)

Soaring electricity demand has become a major issue in recent years, with the proliferation of data centers to manage energy-intensive artificial intelligence. In fact, ComEd’s new summer price represents about a 50 percent increase from two years ago. The price will change in October, but it is expected to continue to be elevated. 

A credit made possible by the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) will continue to give customers some relief, although it will be smaller than what it was in recent months. The law requires a line item on ComEd bills called the Carbon Free Energy Resource Adjustment (CFERA) to subsidize energy generated by Illinois nuclear power plants. But consumer advocates pushed for a provision that changes the charge to a credit when energy prices are high. The amount is adjusted each month, but it is expected to reduce ComEd’s price by about 1.3 cents per kWh in June. 

Overall, ComEd said customers could pay an average of 12 percent more on their monthly bills–but hotter weather could make that average much higher. 

“While we are glad that the CEJA credit will continue to give customers some relief, we are frustrated that for the past year electricity bills have been elevated, largely because of soaring energy demand caused by new and proposed data centers,” CUB Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz said. “Without reforms, we risk the possibility of even higher bills and rolling blackouts in the coming years. That’s why CUB supports the POWER Act, which would implement common-sense reforms to make data centers in Illinois pay their fair share of energy costs.”

The POWER Act (SB 4016/HB 5513) would implement a number of reforms, including requiring data centers to bring their own new clean power if they want firm electric service that won’t be curtailed at times of high demand.