Energy Archives | Citizens Utility Board

PJM Capacity Auction Leads to Record Price Spike for Second Straight Year, Threatens Even Higher Com Ed Bills in 2026-27

Elizabeth — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 21:24:13 +0000

CUB released the following statement: While we are relieved that the negotiated price cap prevented capacity costs from soaring even higher, this record price spike is unacceptable. CUB is deeply concerned that ComEd customers will continue to bear painfully high costs for another year, largely because of policy shortcomings from PJM. The power grid operator’s policy decisions too often favor outdated, expensive power plants and needlessly block low-cost clean energy resources and battery projects from connecting to the grid and bringing down prices. This extended price spike was preventable. It ramps up the urgency of implementing long-term reforms at PJM and comprehensive energy legislation in Illinois, such as the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act, to protect customers from price spikes that serve only to give power generators windfall profits. –CUB Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz Background On Tuesday, July 22, PJM Interconnection, a “Regional Transmission Organization,” announced the results of an auction that determines the price for reserve power, or “capacity.” Capacity costs are a key component of the price Commonwealth Edison customers pay for electricity. PJM is the largest grid operator in the country, serving 67 million customers across all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia (including Commonwealth Edison’s 4.2 million customers). The auction (technically referred to as the “Base Residual Auction”) was held July 9-15. It set a record-high capacity price of $329.17 per Megawatt-day from June 1, 2026 through May 31, 2027. The capacity cost hit a cap negotiated by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and is about 22 percent higher than the price that was set last year for ComEd territory and about 11 times higher than what the price was two years ago. Capacity costs are payments consumers make to power generators–the companies that own power plants–and they have a key impact on the supply price ComEd customers pay. ComEd’s price spiked on June 1 of this year because of high capacity costs, and, because of the latest auction, it will again in June of 2026. (ComEd has not yet announced what the supply price will be next June.) The 2024 capacity auction set a then-record price of about $269.92 per MW-day, about 830 percent higher than the $28.92 per MW-day capacity price set in the auction the year before. Following the price spike in the last auction, consumer and environmental advocates pushed for several changes: RMR reform: Environmental advocates successfully pushed for changes in the way PJM handles Reliability Must Run (RMR) arrangements. RMRs allow PJM to funnel extra consumer money to an otherwise retiring plant to keep it open past its closure date. Under previous PJM policy, the electric capacity of an RMR plant was NOT included in the capacity auction. Consumers thus ended up paying double: first for the price of the RMR contract, and then again because of the high capacity prices that result from not counting the RMR plant. For example, the Independent Market Monitor estimated that not including Brandon Shores and Wagner–two RMR fossil fuel plants near Baltimore, Maryland–in the last capacity auction increased the cost by as much as 40 percent. Changes made since the last […]

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Electrifying news: Utilities offer home rebates, discounts for moving from gas to electricity

Elizabeth — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 19:17:37 +0000

By: Kate Shonk CUB Sustainable Communities Liason At almost every outreach event, CUB staff fields questions on electrification. Now more than ever, it’s clear consumers are curious about alternatives to gas, and now more than ever there are financial incentives to help them make that switch. Because electric supply can come from renewable energy sources, electrifying your home can lead to lower emissions and more affordable utility bills. (Read CUB’s blog on “What is Electrification?”) Transitioning away from gas in your own home can seem daunting, but it can start by replacing one outdated, broken or inefficient gas-powered appliance. And on top of the environmental benefits of electrification, there are new financial incentives. We compiled a list of rebates to help you begin the electrification process, but be sure to check out CUB’s Statewide Better Heat Guide for more information on cheaper and cleaner ways to fuel your home. For those in ComEd territory, check out these rebates: Replace your gas-powered clothes dryer with an electric dryer to qualify for a $40 rebate. Buy a heat pump-powered clothes dryer to qualify for a $200 rebate. Purchase an induction cooktop for a $100 rebate. Receive a discount of up to $2,000 on qualifying air source heat pumps, or a $100 discount on air source heat pump tune-ups. Receive a discount of up to a $9,000 on a geothermal (ground source) heat pump system, or a $1,275-$1,800 discount on a geothermal heat pump indoor unit replacement. Receive a discount of up to $1,350 on a mini-split heat pump, a heating and cooling source that does not require ductwork. To get started on the rebate or discount process in ComEd territory: Review the rebate application steps, purchase the appliance, and complete the application online or by email to Rebates@ComEd.com. You can also download and fill out the application. Instant coupons are also available at certain retailers. Download an instant in-store coupon and present it at checkout. For any questions, call 1-855-433-2700. For those in Ameren territory, check out these rebates: Buy an energy-efficient heat pump water heater and receive a $300 rebate. Replace your gas-powered clothes dryer with an electric dryer to receive a $50 rebate. Contact an Ameren Instant Incentives Program Ally Contractor to receive discounts on ducted air source heat pumps, ductless mini-split heat pumps and heat pump water heaters. Amounts may vary. To get started on the rebate or discount process in Ameren territory: View qualifying appliance models for electric dryers. Get an instant coupon to buy a heat pump water heater at qualifying retailers, or apply for an online rebate. For ducted air source heat pumps and ductless mini-split heat pumps, view the instant incentives fact sheet. For any questions, call 1-866-828-6918. About the author: Kate Shonk started at CUB in 2022. She serves as the main contact for grassroots outreach events and works to advocate for Illinois consumers. Kate graduated from the University of Michigan in 2020 with degrees in English and Political Science. Her favorite part about working for CUB is combining her passions for community organizing and environmental policy. In her free time, she enjoys crocheting, writing, and […]

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CUB Q&A: Winter storm exposes the myth of fossil fuel reliability

Elizabeth — Tue, 09 May 2023 20:32:59 +0000

By Sarah Moskowitz, CUB Deputy Director This past Christmas Eve, as many of us were busy with last-minute holiday preparations, CUB rushed out an email to people in northern Illinois with this ominous subject line: ALERT: Power grid operator calls for energy conservation over the next 24 hours. We were in the middle of Winter Storm Elliott, and PJM Interconnection, which oversees the grid serving ComEd customers in northern Illinois, made the unusual request that everyday customers conserve energy as “the risk of rotating customer outages is very real.” Fortunately, PJM did not have to implement rolling blackouts to save the grid (other regions, however, weren’t so lucky). But it was an unacceptably close call, and the fossil-fueled power generators who for years had sold themselves as necessary for grid reliability, failed to deliver. Elliott, and these generators’ spectacular failure to show up when needed, exposed the myth of fossil fuel reliability. Let me break it down. How bad was Winter Storm Elliott? Elliott was a “bomb cyclone,” a weather event marked by an extreme drop in atmospheric pressure, creating dangerous cold, high winds and heavy snow. This “once-in-a-lifetime” storm plunged 55 million people across the country into wind-chill alerts; at its height, it left 1.6 million customers without power; and resulted in more than 60 deaths. The storm brought record-low temperatures to parts of PJM’s footprint, and resulted in higher-than-anticipated demand for electricity in many areas. The possibility of unexpected electricity demand is nothing new, however. PJM even runs a special “capacity auction” to ensure that when this happens, there are generators ready to step in and supply extra power when the grid needs it. That’s what makes the events during Winter Storm Elliot so outrageous: Generators who had committed to provide the extra power failed to do so. How did Elliott impact utility customers in Illinois? Illinois, with its ample nuclear power, didn’t experience widespread outages. (We had a surplus of carbon-free electricity during the storm, thanks to strong policies like the Future Energy Jobs Act and the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act.) But conditions impacting another part of the power grid can threaten us all, especially with PJM. The largest power grid operator in the country, PJM covers 65 million customers in Washington, D.C., and all or parts of 13 states, from northern Illinois all the way to the Atlantic Coast. (Read about CUB’s CLEAR RTO project to advocate for consumers at PJM.) Prompted by “continuing frigid weather” and power plant outages, PJM on Dec. 23 called for consumers in its region, including ComEd customers, to conserve electricity. So what went wrong? How did fossil-fueled power plants perform in the storm? The Natural Resources Defense Council said: “By Christmas Eve, an astonishing 46 GW of power plants were out of service—enough to power California. What did nearly all these plants have in common? They were powered by fossil fuels, mostly gas. PJM reported failures across the gas system, including low pressure, frozen compressors, and simply no commercially available fuel.” While the fossil fuel industry has bragged that natural gas “defines reliability,” the opposite was true during Winter Storm […]

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$10.3B renewable energy transmission project long-term response to capacity shortage

Elizabeth — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 15:28:46 +0000

The power grid operator for Central and Southern Illinois has approved a $10.3 billion transmission line project that in the long term will bring more clean energy to the region and help prevent problems that have slammed electric customers with skyrocketing power bills this summer. The project, approved by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) on July 25, will add 18 major transmission lines around the central United States and support 53 gigawatts of renewable energy expected to come online starting in 2028. Just one gigawatt is enough energy to power about 750,000 homes, and an MIT study found that interstate transmission coordination and expansion could half the costs of decarbonizing the electrical grid by 2040. The MISO project is the first of an effort of the grid operator’s Long-Range Transmission Planning (LRTP). Fellow consumer advocates say building out transmission is key to grid reliability while transitioning to clean energy. The renewable energy project will help make up for about 50 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants and other aging resources that are shutting down, explains Aubrey Johnson, vice president of system planning and competitive transmission at MISO. The last major transmission buildout MISO approved was its 2011 multi-value transmission initiative. Central and Southern Illinois consumers have seen a 120 percent increase in their power prices this summer, partly because of a dip in electricity supply that sparked a huge jump in the price of capacity–what consumers pay to have enough reserve power when demand is high. Recently, CUB joined with the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition to hold a news conference urging MISO to fast-track 34 renewable energy generation projects that are awaiting approval by the grid operator. The coalition said MISO’s approval of the transmission project was a step in the right direction. “Today’s action to increase grid reliability and integrate more renewable energy and battery storage in MISO North is a desperately-needed positive step, but MISO must act faster to speed the conversion from dirty, expensive fossil fuels to clean, less expensive renewables,” the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition said in a statement. “That starts with moving much more quickly to approve 34 solar and wind projects presently sitting in MISO’s queue.” In other power grid news, the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) called for a cost-benefit analysis of Ameren Illinois shifting from MISO to the PJM Regional Transmission Organization, or RTO. (Read CUB’s Capacity Market Explainer for background on RTOs.) CUB is pleased the ICC is doing a cost-benefit analysis, and the consumer watchdog group looks forward to seeing the results to determine the best option for Ameren Illinois’ 1.2 million electricity customers. For more information about high energy prices, please visit www.CUBHelpCenter.com.

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Ameren offers $500,000 in assistance, and special payment plans have July 31 deadline

Elizabeth — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 17:40:52 +0000

In a summer of skyrocketing power prices, Ameren Illinois announced it is using $500,000 in shareholder funds to give relief to electric customers–and until July 31 it is offering certain customers friendlier plans to pay off debt. The Residential Assistance Credit is in response to the highest electricity prices CUB has ever seen in Central and Southern Illinois. Ameren electric customers saw their average monthly bills rise 55% in July. (Read CUB’s Q&A: June 1 Electricity Price Spike in Central and Southern Illinois for more information.) Ameren said the assistance is designed to assist customers who do not typically meet income qualifications for state and federal assistance programs. Ameren told CUB that the funds were allocated in the form of grants that were applied directly to customer accounts. The utility sent a letter explaining the credit to those customers. “Higher power supply prices are impacting all of our customers, regardless of their income or economic circumstance,” said Joe Solari, vice president of Customer Experience, Ameren Illinois. “We utilized Ameren shareholder funds to help reduce monthly bills for qualified moderate-income customers.” Also, qualified Ameren Illinois customers who are behind on their energy bills can establish an 18-month repayment plan with a 10% down payment through July 31. After July 31, most customers with outstanding balances will need to make a 25% down payment before they can establish a monthly payment plan. “It’s very important that Ameren customers in need take advantage of the opportunity to join a payment plan by July 31st,” said Jim Chilsen, director of communications at Citizens Utility Board. “If you’re struggling, please contact your utility company to avoid disconnection, especially with the extreme heat we’re facing this summer.” Ameren customers can explore energy assistance and bill payment options at AmerenIllinois.com/EnergyAssistance. Or, call the company’s toll-free hotline: 1-800-755-5000, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. Additional Resources: CUBHelpCenter.com Attention Ameren customers: Prepare yourself for higher electric bills with help from these programs With energy prices skyrocketing, advocates urge power grid operator to stop delays on new generation

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CUB explainer: What are Capacity Markets?

Elizabeth — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 21:26:56 +0000

As we hold community events across the state of Illinois, people are often surprised to hear that our electric bills cover not only the power we use but the power we could use. That’s capacity. And the cost of capacity–for most customers it’s hidden in the supply charge we pay–has grown over the years to about 21 percent of the supply side of our bills, according to the Illinois Commerce Commission. Because it’s such a key part of your bill, CUB produced this explainer to give you more information about capacity costs and how the market sets those prices. In the energy sector, there’s a lot of planning to ensure that every customer who pays for electricity can expect it to work when they turn on a light switch. Your utility handles the distribution of electricity from the power lines in your neighborhood to your home. If there’s a power outage you call them. But beyond that, the high-power transmission lines and the flow of power over that network is managed by a somewhat mysterious organization that many customers don’t even know exists: a Regional Transmission Organization, or RTO. The RTO serves as a kind of “air traffic controller,” monitoring the movement of electricity from large power plants to your electric utility’s system. PJM Interconnection is the RTO that covers ComEd and all or part of 12 other states and Washington, D.C. MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) is the power grid operator for Ameren Illinois and all or part of 14 states. Not only do RTOs monitor reliability in these regions, but they also manage separate auctions to determine the price of energy (the electricity that is consumed by end-users) as well as the price for capacity (the maximum amount of electricity that could be consumed by end-users). The PJM capacity auction, the largest of its kind in the country, covering 65 million customers and about 20 percent of the country’s power supply, is a forward auction selling energy capacity for three years in advance. The MISO capacity market is a prompt auction selling energy capacity over the next year. In 2022, it made headlines when capacity issues sparked a 120 percent increase in Ameren Illinois’ summer price, and MISO officials warned of the possibility–albeit remote–of rolling blackouts to handle a potential capacity gap during high-demand periods. Basically, the capacity market determines how much power is needed and where it should be located in order to prevent widespread power outages when demand for electricity is high. The market uses formulas to predict a region’s peak total energy usage for the year, plus a cushion. This cushion is controversial because it is usually provided by expensive, fossil-fueled power plants. When the cushion is inflated, electric customers often end up paying too much for dirty power they don’t need. In fact, a 2020 Sierra Club study found consumers are paying $4.4 Billion in over-procurement costs to keep 77 gas and coal plants online in PJM territory. RTOs are nonprofit entities, but they have little accountability or transparency to consumers who often don’t know they exist. That’s a big reason why CUB launched […]

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Q&A: Hourly Pricing and price spikes

Sophia — Thu, 14 Jul 2022 14:07:13 +0000

What is ComEd’s Hourly Pricing program? Under traditional rates, people pay a flat amount for electricity supply that changes only a few times a year. Hourly Pricing is an alternative pricing plan in which participants pay a supply rate that is subject to more immediate market conditions and can change hourly. While over the course of a day, the Hourly Pricing rate can go higher than the standard rate—particularly during times when demand for power is highest (like hot summer afternoons)—the hourly price is usually lower than the standard rate. In the past, Hourly Pricing customers saved an average of about 15 percent off the supply side of their bills, and even more when they were able to move more of their electricity usage to times of the day when energy demand was lower. What is going on with ComEd’s Hourly Pricing program? Over the past 18 months, extreme market conditions have been impacting energy customers across the world. These conditions have led to more frequent price spikes in ComEd’s Hourly Pricing program than we’ve previously seen, leading to reduced savings or even losses for program participants. While Hourly Pricing has in the past saved money for about 80 percent of participants, market conditions in 2021 reduced the percentage of customers saving to just over half. How high have hourly prices spiked? In February of 2021, ComEd’s Hourly Price reached about 32 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh)—more than four times ComEd’s standard rate at the time. This year, the price spiked to a range of $1.19 per kWh to a record $2.30 per kWh for three hours in mid-June. Although this was only for three hours–such price spikes usually are temporary–those amounts were alarming to customers and advocates alike. (Note: The Hourly Pricing program has a price cap of $3.70 per kWh, and over the history of the program it has never reached that cap. Read more below.) Why is this happening? A number of developments in the energy market have led to volatile power prices. Record cold in the South in the winter of 2021 disrupted the natural gas distribution system and caused heating prices to skyrocket. Since then, other issues have kept prices elevated. That includes rising demand for heating gas as the economy pulled out of the pandemic, gas-production disruptions caused by Hurricane Ida, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has disrupted European energy supplies and driven up demand for liquefied natural gas from the United States. When natural gas prices are high they eventually impact electricity prices, because gas plants are a major generator of electricity. Is a price cap in place for Hourly Pricing customers? Yes, Hourly prices are capped at a maximum of $3.70 per kWh by PJM, the power grid operator in northern Illinois. The Hourly Pricing FAQs say the energy supply costs in this program have never reached $3.70 per kWh. ComEd does not control the market price of energy and under law cannot mark up the supply costs of the power it delivers. But the utility does offer Budget Billing to help customers smooth out large monthly variations in electric bills. If I’m on […]

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Tell CUB: How do you fight climate change? (You could win a prize!)

Sophia — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 14:50:33 +0000

Recent United Nations (UN) reports on climate change have painted a grim picture of the current climate crisis. The good news is that the UN is optimistic that the consequences of climate change–extreme weather, rising water levels, droughts and more–can be avoided or lessened if we take action now. In honor of Earth Month, we’re asking CUB supporters to tell us what actions you’re taking in your daily lives to fight climate change, no matter how big or small. Please take a moment to submit your tip here. One participant will be randomly selected to win a bundle of ten Ecosmart energy efficient LED light bulbs (deadline: 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, April 30)! These 60-watt LED bulbs have a longer lifespan than traditional incandescent bulbs, lasting up to 15,000 hours, and use significantly less energy. They’re also great for your pocketbook. At just over $80 in estimated lifetime savings per bulb, you could save up to $800 as the winner of this prize package. Don’t forget to submit your tip and good luck!

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Greenflation: Myth vs Fact

Elizabeth — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 16:38:35 +0000

Amid headlines about record inflation, critics of clean energy policy have tried to blame it for the higher heating bills and the general surge in prices–they even use the term “greenflation.” But climate-friendly policy is not the cause of the high prices. The world was already grappling with pandemic-related supply chain and labor shortages that contributed to rising sales prices. Now with the war in Ukraine, sanctions against Russia will likely help keep prices elevated on items connected to top exports – oil, wheat and metals. In the case of natural gas prices, the pandemic disruptions and shortages along with an extreme cold snap last winter and other factors have all contributed to higher heating bills. “Climate policy is not to blame,” clarifies Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency. Experts explain that, if anything, clean energy policies have a deflationary effect, such as subsidies for electric vehicles and decreasing economic dependence on oil. “The result is actually a decrease in [oil] demand; which leads to lower prices,” says Clark Williams-Derry of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “A fossil-fuel-based economy is fundamentally driven by volatility.” Illinois consumers have experienced that first hand, as many have seen their natural gas prices double over the past year. The latest in a series of price spikes over the years began in February of 2021. This one was caused by record cold in the Southern United States–the kind of volatile weather that’s becoming more common as climate change gets worse–that disrupted the natural gas distribution system and limited supply across the country just as heating demand shot up. Other factors have helped keep prices painfully high including increased demand as economies worldwide begin to recover from the pandemic; increased Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) exports to other parts of the world, such as Europe, keeping supply lower here; less gas exploration and well construction in recent years; increased use of gas for electricity generation last summer; and decreased gas production in the Gulf of Mexico where federal officials estimate more than 90 percent of gas production was knocked offline from Hurricane Ida last summer. The result has been devastating on our heating bills. The Energy Information Administration predicted the average US household would experience significant bill increases this year on average when compared to last year. The latest EIA statistics predict a 34.6 percent increase in Midwestern natural gas bills this winter (October through March). Other heating sources are also up: While Midwestern homes that heat with electricity are expected to pay about 3 percent more this winter, propane bills are predicted to be up about 46.5 percent and across the country heating oil bills are expected to surge by nearly 55 percent. Natural gas utilities have also played a role in the bill surge. While utility companies aren’t allowed to profit from gas supply rates, they can profit off another part of the bill, delivery rates. And they’ve been finding creative ways to increase that side of bills. For example, CUB has been fighting the Qualified Infrastructure Plant surcharge since it was introduced in 2013 as a way to rake […]

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First person: Home energy assessment simple, easy, helpful for CUB lawyer

Sophia — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 18:43:56 +0000

By Eric DeBellis CUB Regulatory Counsel As a lawyer at CUB and a new homeowner, I figured I ought to practice what I preach, so I signed up for a home energy audit through my utility this winter. My experience was simple, easy, and helpful. An energy efficiency technician from Franklin Energy called me 45 minutes before arriving to confirm his ETA. Upon arrival, he handed me a box of weather-stripping for the door, a shower timer (my wife would attest I needed that!), and information on rebates for various efficiency products and services. He and his associate toured each room of the house and noted what equipment he’d need from his truck. He returned a few minutes later and methodically went down his to-do list, which included: Install pipe insulation on the water heater pipes. Check. Replace every non-LED/CFL or burned out bulb. Check. Check the bathroom for shower aerator. Check. (We have one, otherwise he would have installed that free of charge as well.) Check windows and appliances to make sure they are up-to-date and efficient. Check. As a professional energy policy wonk who’s spent the last month playing handyman in our new house, I had a lot of questions regarding insulation and the various projects I have been undertaking to reduce drafts. One tip he provided that I am embarrassed to admit I never knew: In the winter, you can run the fan clockwise so it pulls cold air up, pushing warm air down. I was today years old when I learned that! (And I just found out that CUB even produced a video on this very topic.) The technicians were friendly and professional, and the whole audit only took about an hour. Afterwards, I received the report via email. I highly recommend the home energy assessment. For more information, about this and other programs, visit CUB’s Clean Energy page, and read this WatchBlog article.

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