Illinois electricity rates & utilities
We track 2 Illinois utilities and the rate cases at the Illinois Commerce Commission. You can shop your electricity supplier here — so the bill audit applies.
Shopping for a supplier? Illinois's official comparison tool is Plug In Illinois, run by the ICC — our guide to using it →
Illinois electricity prices by the numbers
Avg residential price
17.69¢/kWh
2025 · EIA
Change since 2019
+36%
+8% after inflation
Steepest single year
+18.7%
2021→2022
Price to Compare
10.399–11.326¢
ComEd ↔ Ameren Illinois
Prices: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Real change uses U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (CPI-U).
Current Illinois electricity rates by utility
The Price to Compare for each Illinois utility we track — supply only, sorted lowest first. This is the number any competitive supplier offer has to beat.
| Utility | Price to Compare | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| ComEd | 10.399¢/kWh | |
| Ameren Illinois | 11.326¢/kWh |
Supply-only rates; delivery charges are additional. Rates reset on each utility's schedule — confirm on your bill before acting.
What's driving Illinois electricity prices
Illinois is split between two grids, and that shapes who pays what. ComEd (northern Illinois, including Chicago) is in PJM, where back-to-back record capacity auctions — with PJM's market monitor attributing about 70% of the cost increase to data-center demand — are raising ComEd residential bills an estimated 10–15% (roughly $10+ a month) in 2025–26. Ameren Illinois (central and southern Illinois) is in MISO and isn't exposed to those PJM auctions. — Citizens Utility Board (CUB).
Illinois also funds clean energy through ratepayers: the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) targets 100% carbon-free power by 2045 and provided roughly $694 million over five years to keep Exelon's Braidwood, Byron, and Dresden nuclear plants running. — Citizens Utility Board (CUB).
How electricity rates work in Illinois
In Illinois, your utility delivers the power and is regulated by the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC). The electricity itself (supply) is competitive — you can buy it from an Alternative Retail Electric Supplier (ARES) or stay on your utility's default rate.
That default rate is the utility's 'Price to Compare,' the per-kWh supply figure you measure a supplier's offer against. The state's official Plug In Illinois site lets you compare offers to it.
One Illinois wrinkle: the two utilities sit on different regional grids. ComEd (northern Illinois, including Chicago) is part of the PJM grid, while Ameren Illinois (central and southern Illinois) is part of MISO — so the wholesale-cost pressure behind 'rising rates' comes from two different markets depending on where you live.
What you can do: Compare your supplier's rate to your utility's Price to Compare. If you're paying more, you can drop the supplier and return to the default rate — usually within 1–2 billing cycles.
Who's who on your Illinois electric bill
Four different players decide what you pay. Here's each one, in plain English:
Your utility — the "distributor"
The company that owns the poles and wires and physically delivers power to your home — the name on your bill (in Illinois, one of the utilities listed below, like Ameren Illinois). This part is a regulated monopoly: only it delivers in your area, and the ICC sets what it can charge for delivery. You can't shop the delivery part.
Generation — the "supply"
The electricity itself (also called supply or generation). You can buy it from your utility's default rate — the Price to Compare — or from a competing third-party supplier. It's the identical electricity either way; only the price differs.
PJM — the "grid operator"
The independent operator that runs the regional high-voltage grid for Illinois and 12 other states. It's like air-traffic control for electricity — it keeps enough power flowing across the whole region. Its wholesale costs flow through your utility into your bill. (More below.)
The ICC — the "regulator"
The Illinois Commerce Commission is the state agency that reviews and approves utility rate increases. When a utility wants to charge more, it files a "rate case" here — which is exactly what we track.
Putting it together: when you turn on a light in Illinois, the electricity was produced by power plants, routed across the region by PJM, and delivered to your house over Ameren Illinois's wires (your distributor). Your bill charges you for both the supply (the electricity) and the delivery (the wires). If you signed up with a third-party supplier, they set the supply price; if not, you pay your utility's Price to Compare. The ICC approves the delivery rates and oversees the default supply rate.
What is "PJM" and its "capacity market"? (plain English)
PJM is the independent operator that runs the high-voltage power grid for 13 states and Washington, D.C. — including yours. Think of it as air-traffic control for electricity: it doesn't own power plants or your wires, but it makes sure enough electricity is flowing across the whole region every second of the day. The wholesale costs PJM sets get passed through your utility into your bill.
The capacity market is a separate, once-a-year auction PJM runs. Instead of paying for electricity you use, it pays power plants just to promise they'll be ready on the few hottest or coldest days when demand peaks. That promise is called "capacity." It's like paying a backup generator a retainer to stay on standby — you pay even in months you never need it.
Why it matters now: when PJM expects demand to jump, those standby payments spike. Demand is jumping largely because of data centers, and PJM's recent capacity auctions hit record highs three times in a row. Utilities pass that cost straight to customers — which is a big reason bills across all five states we cover are rising. Sources: PJM; PJM Independent Market Monitor (Monitoring Analytics).
Illinois electricity prices over time
The average Illinois residential electricity price went from 13.03¢/kWh in 2019 to 17.69¢/kWh in 2025 — up 36%.
Illinois utilities we cover
- Ameren Illinois
Price to Compare · 11.326¢/kWh
- ComEd
Price to Compare · 10.399¢/kWh
Coverage note: We track Illinois's two large investor-owned utilities, ComEd and Ameren Illinois. We don't cover the state's municipal electric systems (such as Springfield's City Water, Light & Power) or rural electric cooperatives, which set their own rates outside ICC retail-choice regulation.
Where to find your supply rate on a Illinois bill
Your utility's standard rate is the Price to Compare. On your bill, find the supply / generation rate in ¢/kWh and compare it to that — if a supplier charges more, you're overpaying. Here's the exact line to look for:
Where is this on my bill?
On your bill, find the supply rate in ¢/kWh. Your utility's standard rate is the “Price to Compare.” If your supplier charges more than that, you're overpaying.
Not sure switching is even worth it in Illinois? Read our honest, commission-free Illinois energy-choice guide →
Rate cases & increases
| Utility | Docket | Status | ~Bill impact | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMEREN-IL | 24-0238 | effective | — | — |
| COMED | 24-0181 | effective | — | — |
Illinois electricity rates: common questions
- What is the average electricity rate in Illinois?
- Illinois's average all-in residential electricity price was 17.69¢/kWh as of 2025, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The default supply portion (Price to Compare) currently runs from 10.399¢ (ComEd) to 11.326¢/kWh (Ameren Illinois) depending on your utility; delivery charges are additional.
- Which Illinois utility has the cheapest electricity rate?
- Among the Illinois utilities we track, ComEd currently has the lowest default supply rate (10.399¢/kWh) and Ameren Illinois the highest (11.326¢/kWh). These are supply-only figures — your utility is determined by where you live, so the practical question isn't which utility to pick but whether a competitive supplier beats YOUR utility's default rate.
- Why are Illinois electricity rates going up?
- Illinois is split between two grids: ComEd (northern IL) is in PJM, where capacity auctions have cleared at record levels since 2024 — $269.92/MW-day, then a $333.44 all-time high in December 2025, then $325 in July 2026, the third consecutive auction at the FERC cap — driving supply costs up; Ameren Illinois (central/southern IL) is in MISO, a separate grid where that PJM spike does not directly apply. Delivery-side rate plans at the ICC are a separate, additional driver for both.