* Stephanie Zimmermann and David Roeder at the Sun-Times…
Chicagoans would see much higher utility bills if expected rate hikes for electricity and natural gas are approved even though energy production prices are now low.
ComEd and Peoples Gas are planning significant capital spending that threatens to eat up any savings that might have come from low energy prices.
“There will be a significant effect on customers’ bills,” says Jeff Orcutt, president of the consulting firm Chapman Energy Strategies, which analyzes utilities for the Illinois Public Interest Research Group.
David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, another private, not-for-profit watchdog group, says there’s “no question” ComEd’s latest spending projections will boost customers’ bills. And he says an expected Peoples Gas rate hike could create an “impending crisis” for low-income consumers.
* Steve Daniels at Crain’s…
Nicor Gas, the utility delivering natural gas to most of suburban Chicago, is pushing legislation in Springfield to put the rate changes for it and Peoples Gas, the utility serving the city, on the same sort of autopilot that ComEd and downstate utility Ameren Illinois have enjoyed for eight years. Bills were introduced in mid-February in the House and Senate.
For its part, Peoples says the bill is Nicor’s idea and that Peoples is still reviewing it. Sources hear that Peoples intends to file with the Illinois Commerce Commission for a rate hike as soon as this month, so that’s presumably more on the minds of the utility and Wisconsin-based parent WEC Energy Group than Nicor’s bid to convince lawmakers to let it set rates via a truncated annual-formula process. Gas utilities currently must use the traditional route, requesting rate hikes at times of their choosing from the ICC and going through an exhaustive 11-month review process.
Naperville-based Nicor, a unit of Atlanta-based Southern, has obtained ICC approval of two rate hikes in the past two years, together adding $261 million in additional revenue from ratepayers. With Peoples not having received a rate increase since 2015, its request is likely to be a whopper whenever it arrives. And it will come at a time when Chicago households are showing increasing difficulty paying their heating bills. […]
The average residential customer in the city paid $1,222 for natural gas last year. That includes many dwellers of small homes and condominiums, so average usage is less than that of Nicor’s customers in the suburbs.
*** UPDATE *** Interesting news from Steve Daniels…
Gov. J.B. Pritzker wants Illinois to approve legislation putting the state on the path to 100 percent clean energy in the foreseeable future. But, unlike virtually every other major energy bill the state has enacted in the past two decades, he doesn’t want Commonwealth Edison to write it.
So he’s calling in reinforcements. The governor’s office has hired Doug Scott, former Illinois Commerce Commission Chairman under Gov. Pat Quinn, as a consultant to advise on legislation to advance more clean-energy development in Illinois.
As ICC chair, Scott, now vice president for electricity and efficiency at Minneapolis-based consultancy Great Plains Institute, led Quinn’s ultimately unsuccessful effort to kill ComEd’s smart grid bill in 2011, which permits the utility to raise rates via an annual formula that gives regulators little say.
Before that, he was director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. He spent many years in Springfield before his administrative roles as a Democratic state representative from Rockford.
- DuPage - Monday, Mar 2, 20 @ 10:21 am:
“Comed”, and “rate hike” have become synonymous.
- SSL - Monday, Mar 2, 20 @ 10:26 am:
Not sure following the ConEd (the con is intentional) way makes sense. Hopefully the Feds deliver some real bad news to both Exelon and the legislators who conspired to defraud Illinois residents.
You can’t blame these scamming Utility companies for trying. They know JB is all in for infrastructure so why not belly up to the trough.
- Ok - Monday, Mar 2, 20 @ 10:49 am:
The ComEd impacts are significant, but the People’s rate hikes are going to be catastrophic.
The massive pipe replacement program has cost so much money, and billed to the future, that we will be seeing that pain for decades.
And it is completely unnecessary. They are building out for a future of natural gas expansion, when what we will more likely see is natural gas abandonment, and people switching to electric.
- Donnie Elgin - Monday, Mar 2, 20 @ 11:36 am:
“They are building out for a future of natural gas expansion, when what we will more likely see is natural gas abandonment, and people switching to electric”
Nat Gas consumption is up both US and in IL.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/NG_CONS_SUM_A_EPG0_VC0_MMCF_A.htm
- Lt Guv - Monday, Mar 2, 20 @ 1:01 pm:
Good move by Governor Pritzker to bring
Scott in.
- Downstate Illinois - Monday, Mar 2, 20 @ 5:12 pm:
I’m waiting for the day when the governor realizes that pushing clean energy that doesn’t exist only raises everyone’s rates and destroys thousands of jobs downstate. You can’t balance a budget when you destroy your economy.
- Senator Clay Davis - Monday, Mar 2, 20 @ 5:25 pm:
Doug Scott is one of the few Illinois politicos that has a functional understanding of energy markets and actual environmental protection. Most current and former ICC Commissioners are either career politicians, campaign donors or lobbyists of one flavor or another. And there’s even less subject matter knowledge among legislators and staff. Many GOP legislators just parrot talking points from right wing cable news, while the Dems just speak in vague platitudes about climate or equity. Meanwhile, nobody who’s in charge understands the implications of the policies the GA is voting on.
The entrance of Doug Scott into this discussion means that this time, the adults in the room understand the games the kids are playing.
- Going nuclear - Monday, Mar 2, 20 @ 6:39 pm:
If Doug Scott succeeds in finding a path forward on the competing renewable energy bills, Pritzker would be wise to keep him on board as his climate change czar. Unlike many other Democratic governors, Pritzker has yet to prepare a plan outlining the steps his administration will take to tackle the worsening climate crisis.
- Anonanonsir - Monday, Mar 2, 20 @ 8:03 pm:
==Nicor Gas, the utility delivering natural gas to most of suburban Chicago, is pushing legislation in Springfield to put the rate changes for it and Peoples Gas, the utility serving the city, on the same sort of autopilot that ComEd and downstate utility Ameren Illinois have enjoyed for eight years.==
Gas companies: Give us the ComEd treatment.
- Joe - Monday, Mar 2, 20 @ 8:26 pm:
Anybody know the actual Bill Numbers, and are actually following those?
- VerySmallRocks - Tuesday, Mar 3, 20 @ 9:32 am:
Path To 100 Bill is HB2966/SB1781, Clean Energy Jobs Act SB2132/HB 3624. Follow along on ilga.gov. In a somewhat simplistic nutshell, PT100 is more focused on near term improvements of solar and windpower incentives to prevent a fall off in installations, CEJA is more broad based, with a goal of 100% renewable energy in Illinois by 2050.
- Dr. Devonshire - Wednesday, Mar 4, 20 @ 9:33 am:
Wondering how they expect to resolve the impact of higher rates on small business. Driving people out of business or to another state isn’t wise.