CHICAGO — Electric utility Commonwealth Edison has asked regulators to review a $15.3 billion, four-year grid plan that it says will help meet growing energy demand and protect infrastructure from severe weather events.

The filing is part of the state’s grid planning process laid out in the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, a landmark decarbonization bill that passed in 2021. It details the technology and infrastructure investments ComEd hopes to make from 2028 to 2031 to promote grid reliability.

But the plan will not be without a cost to ratepayers, and the consumer advocates who successfully championed a reduction to ComEd’s initial plan in 2023 are already pushing back against this year’s filing. It will undergo an 11-month review by the state’s utility regulator, the Illinois Commerce Commission.

If the investments proposed are approved in full by the ICC, ComEd expects residential customers to see an increased average cost of between $2.50 to $3 per month starting in 2028.

This would be separate from delivery rate increases, including a $243 million rate increase approved by the ICC in December that raised bills for its customers by a little over $3 per month. ComEd delivers electricity to over 4 million customers in northern Illinois.

The company says the plan is intended to account for increased energy demand from electric vehicles, data centers and more people choosing to heat their homes with electric heat rather than natural gas. The plan is also meant to accommodate new interconnections for renewable energy sources as consumer demand for solar increases.

“I’ve been in this industry about 22, 23 years, and I’ve never seen the amount of change that we are experiencing right now,” said Melissa Washington, senior vice president of customer operations at ComEd. “Most of the pace of change that we’re seeing has come about in the last three years and it’s continued to grow.”

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The plan also doesn’t prevent ComEd from filing a standard rate request in future years. Company officials say they expect to file a new rate request in January 2027 that, if approved, would go into effect in January 2028 — the same year as the grid plan investments are expected to start.

Regulatory framework

CEJA’s 2021 passage required the state’s major electric utilities to prepare grid plans that outline how they will integrate new renewable energy resources and meet decarbonization requirements while prioritizing affordability, especially for low-income communities.

ComEd filed its first four-year grid plan request in 2023, but the ICC sent it back after deciding the company had failed to meet the standards set under CEJA. The company refiled a slimmed down spending plan the following year, and the commission ultimately approved a version that reduced spending on system improvements by about 25%, according to the commission.

ComEd President and Chief Executive Officer Gil Quiniones said the company learned a lot from the process of filing and refiling its first grid plan.

“We’ve applied all of the learnings from those experiences to this one, and we are confident that we’re putting a plan that is in alignment with the statute but also in alignment with the expectations of the commission,” Quiniones said.

Utility watchdog and consumer advocacy groups, however, expect to fight for similar reductions to this proposed plan. While most agree that some investment is needed, they argue it is not necessary now and could be implemented over coming years instead.

The Citizens Utility Board, an independent utility watchdog created by the Illinois legislature, said its lawyers are reviewing the filing to identify and push back on any “wasteful, inefficient and unnecessary spending.” The latest filing is over 800 pages.

“CUB is disappointed to see ComEd come in with another bloated, expensive grid plan,” CUB Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz wrote in a statement. “Everyone supports a strong distribution system, but ComEd has a responsibility to maintain its grid in a way that benefits customers and doesn’t bankrupt them.”

CUB will have the opportunity to submit testimony to the ICC opposing the grid plan, as will the attorney general’s office, environmental advocates and other stakeholders.

Increased energy demand

ComEd says the planned investments will allow the company to respond to increased consumer demand for electricity caused by factors ranging from electrification of homes to data centers and artificial intelligence. Energy demand also grew in part due to increased electric vehicle demand as the state tries to reach its goal of one million registered electric vehicles by 2030.

Over a third of the planned spending would support system reliability, including preventative maintenance and replacement of aging equipment, according to the filing. The plan also outlines investments in grid management, customer operations, new business and facility relocation and information technology architecture.

The plan proposes installation of three new substations across Chicago and two elsewhere in northern Illinois, while also adding new capacity at more than 70 of its substations. Substations are a part of the electricity transmission and distribution system that are key to lowering voltage to safe and usable levels before it enters homes and businesses.

In its filing, ComEd said it experienced higher demand primarily concentrated around 55 of its substations. Data center energy needs accounted for over 47% of that new substation demand, according to the filing.

The ICC and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are currently reviewing separate proceedings filed by ComEd last year that would require high energy-use applicants like data centers to make a financial commitment to meet certain transmission service thresholds. The company says this is designed to ensure that the cost of upgrades made to accommodate electricity use by those users is not passed on to other customers.

The attorney general’s office filed objections to the FERC request, writing that the proposed agreements fail to adequately protect other customers.

Gov. JB Pritzker recently signed the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act into law, setting new requirements for battery storage and so-called “virtual power plants.” Senior ComEd officials said the grid plan factored in some of those elements but acknowledged it might need adjustments as they learn more about the law.

Affordability

Affordability and cost efficiency are key requirements under CEJA.

To be considered affordable, electricity costs must not account for more than 3% of average household income, or 6% for those who heat their homes with electricity.

Under the plan, average residential customers would devote 1.41% of their household income to electricity in 2028, up from 1.23% in 2026. By the third year of the plan, it would grow to 1.48%, which the company says is still lower than the national average of around 3%. ComEd said the average bill for its customers is currently around $106 per month.

CEJA also requires that at least 40% of grid modernization and clean energy investments benefit communities that have historically faced exclusion from economic opportunities or have faced disproportionate environmental burdens from pollution. ComEd estimates that 1.7 million customers, or approximately 42% of its customer base, fall within that classification, according to the filing.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.