Energy choice · Illinois
Should you shop for an electricity supplier in Illinois?
Check whether your town already aggregated you, then lean on CUB's independent analysis. For most ComEd and Ameren customers, the default holds up well.
Check your own bill first (2 minutes, free)
Find the supply rate on your bill and compare it to your utility's Price to Compare. If a supplier is charging more, you're overpaying for identical electricity — and you can switch back. Our audit runs on your device; we never see your numbers, and we never try to switch you.
Check my rateHow choice works in Illinois
Your utility always handles delivery — the wires and the outages — and you can't shop that part. What you can shop is the supply: the electricity itself. Do nothing and you stay on the default rate, the Price to Compare (PTC). ComEd's and Ameren's Price to Compare is tied to annual energy and capacity auctions and changes periodically, so it's a moving benchmark.
Illinois's official, commission-run resource is Plug In Illinois. It's a neutral, no-commission comparison tool — the only place worth shopping. One catch: it shows a plan's intro rate, not the variable rate it can roll into later, so read the contract's terms box before you sign.
- Like Ohio, many Illinois communities run opt-out municipal aggregation — check your bill's supply line to see whether your town already enrolled you with a supplier.
- Illinois has the Citizens Utility Board (CUB), an independent, state-chartered consumer watchdog whose rate analyses are worth reading — and which has long warned that residential supplier deals often cost more than the utility's price.
Step-by-step: we wrote a full guide to using ILEnergyRatings.com — what each column means, the three contract terms to check, and the math to do before switching. Read the ILEnergyRatings.com guide →
Illinois's utilities — the rate to beat
This is the Price to Compare for each Illinois utility we track — the number a supplier offer has to beat. A "deal" above these is costing you money for the same electricity.
| Utility | PTC | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| ComEd | 10.399¢/kWh | |
| Ameren Illinois | 11.326¢/kWh |
Rates change on a schedule — always confirm the current figure on your bill or your utility's site before deciding.
Before you shop, know the traps
The same handful of tactics show up in every choice state: a teaser rate that flips to a variable one, an early-termination fee paired with a variable rate, monthly fees hiding behind a low headline rate, green-energy upsells, and "your utility sent me" pitches at the door. We break down each one — and the rule that cuts through all of them — in the main guide.
Read the full traps breakdown →Common questions
- Is it worth switching electricity suppliers in Illinois?
- Check whether your town already aggregated you, then lean on CUB's independent analysis. For most ComEd and Ameren customers, the default holds up well. The only offer worth taking is a fixed rate, for the full term, with no monthly fee, that beats your Price to Compare — and you compare it on Plug In Illinois, not off a phone or door pitch.
- What is the Price to Compare in Illinois?
- It's the per-kWh rate your utility charges for default electricity supply — the PTC — and it's the number any supplier offer has to beat to actually save you money. Your utility buys that power at a wholesale auction and bills it through with no markup. ComEd's and Ameren's Price to Compare is tied to annual energy and capacity auctions and changes periodically, so it's a moving benchmark.
- Will switching suppliers in Illinois change my service or reliability?
- No. Your utility still owns the wires, reads your meter, and handles outages regardless of who supplies your electricity. Switching only changes the supply line on your bill, and if a supplier goes out of business you're moved back to the default rate automatically.
RateWatchdog takes no supplier commissions and never enrolls or switches anyone. See the full energy-choice guide →