Illinois

Why Are Electricity Rates Rising in Illinois in 2026?

Home Energy Guide Utility Bills & Home Efficiency Posted October 1, 2026
Illinois brick home on a tree-lined residential street

Why are electricity rates rising in Illinois? Homeowners have good reason to ask. In some states, the “rates are skyrocketing” story is exaggerated. Illinois has seen a real increase. Here are the main reasons, and what you can do about them.

Illinois' average residential electricity price was 19.89¢/kWh in June 2026, compared with 18.29¢/kWh in June 2025. (A kWh, or kilowatt-hour, is the unit on your bill.) That's an increase of about 8.7% in a year.

But that doesn't mean one utility simply “raised rates 9%.” An Illinois electric bill has several moving parts. They're moving for different reasons.

Illinois Electric Bills Have Two Major Sides

For most homeowners, the bill splits into:

In both major utility territories, ComEd and Ameren Illinois, the utility mainly acts as the delivery company. Your supply can come from the utility's default service, an alternative retail supplier or municipal aggregation. Default supply is bought through a process directed by the Illinois Power Agency. It's passed through to customers without markup.

ComEd and Ameren Are in Different Power Markets

Illinois is split between two regional electricity markets:

They have different capacity auctions, resources, transmission systems and supply pricing. So the reason electricity costs rise in Chicago can be different from the reason they rise in Peoria or Champaign.

What Are the Current Supply Benchmarks?

Each utility publishes a Price to Compare, the default supply-and-transmission price you can use to judge supplier offers. For October 1, 2026 through May 31, 2027:

Both are still well above where they were a year or two ago. ComEd's new price is about 53% higher than two years ago. Ameren's is about 24% higher than last October. And neither number includes delivery charges, which are separate.

Why Did Supply Costs Rise? Capacity.

One major driver is capacity. Capacity isn't the electricity you use. It's a payment to make sure enough power plants are available when the grid is most stressed. Think of it as paying for the ability to keep the lights on during the hottest or coldest hours.

PJM Capacity Prices Hit the Cap

This affects ComEd territory. PJM's capacity price for June 2026 through May 2027 cleared at the cap of $329.17 per MW-day, up from $269.92 the year before. That's about 11 times what the price was two years earlier.

An independent review of the PJM market concluded that data center load growth is the primary reason for recent and expected capacity market conditions. Those higher capacity costs flow into retail supply prices. That's why supply can rise even when natural gas prices aren't spiking. It can rise even though the utility isn't generating the power and your usage hasn't changed. Consumer advocates expect ComEd's supply price to stay elevated at least through May 2028.

Ameren Territory Has a Different Capacity Story

MISO's capacity prices are seasonal and have swung widely. In 2024, the summer capacity price in Ameren's region was about $30 per MW-day. It jumped to about $666.50 in 2025. (A MISO software error was one factor, and Ameren customers later got a credit.) It then settled at $424.30 for summer 2026.

MISO also moved to a new pricing method called a Reliability-Based Demand Curve. It's designed to make capacity prices respond more directly to how much spare capacity the region has.

So it would be inaccurate to say the same capacity spike is behind every Illinois bill. The two halves of the state are seeing different wholesale-market dynamics.

Delivery Rates Are Rising Too

Supply is only half the story. Both utilities are also raising delivery revenue to pay for grid investment.

In December 2025, the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) approved delivery “reconciliation” increases. These are true-ups of past costs:

Both utilities have since filed new reconciliation requests: about $234.3 million for ComEd and $65.3 million for Ameren. ICC decisions are expected in December 2026.

These are utility-wide revenue figures, not your personal bill increase. And a request isn't an approval: the ICC has cut these requests before.

Ameren Is Planning a Major Grid Investment Cycle

In January 2026, Ameren Illinois filed a new grid plan covering 2028 through 2031, totaling roughly $2.8 billion. The utility says it would modernize the distribution grid, improve reliability, support electrification and prepare for future demand. Late in 2026, a final ICC order is expected. The actual rates to pay for it will be set in a separate rate case.

That's a future planning item, not today's rate. But it's part of why delivery costs are likely to keep moving.

Why Does Illinois Need More Grid Investment?

Several trends are hitting at once: aging infrastructure, electrification, EV adoption, new renewable and battery projects, new industrial loads and data centers. The grid wasn't built for that combination of large new loads and large amounts of new generation. Meeting it takes investment in substations, transformers, feeders, transmission, grid automation and storage.

Are Data Centers Causing Illinois Rates to Rise?

They're part of the story. But “data centers caused my bill increase” is too simple. There are really two separate questions:

Even if a data center pays for its own connection, new demand can still raise capacity and wholesale prices for everyone in the region. In PJM, that market effect is already showing up.

Generation Retirements Matter Too

Older coal and gas units have been retiring. New resources can take years to get permitted, built and connected. When demand grows faster than dependable supply, capacity becomes more valuable. Prices rise to signal that the market needs more of it.

Renewable Energy Isn't Automatically the Cause

It's tempting to blame either renewables or fossil plants for every rate change. The real system is more complicated. Illinois customers do pay for some clean-energy programs. Those programs also add new generation and reduce exposure to fuel prices. Prices are also driven by capacity scarcity, transmission, natural gas, grid investment and load growth. A fair look at your bill separates those pieces. It doesn't turn the bill into a political argument.

Illinois Is Moving Toward Batteries and Virtual Power Plants

Illinois' Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act took effect June 1, 2026. Among other things, it sets a goal of about 3,000 MW of grid battery storage by 2030. It also required ComEd and Ameren to propose initial virtual power plant programs. These pay home batteries for helping the grid at peak times. Fuller programs are due by the end of 2027.

That could eventually add value for home batteries and flexible loads. But any program should be evaluated using the rules actually available to you today.

Compare kWh Before Blaming the Rate

Suppose a ComEd homeowner used 800 kWh for $155 in July 2025 and 1,150 kWh for $230 in July 2026. The bill rose $75, but usage rose 44%. The rate may well be higher. But a big part of the problem is that the home used much more electricity. Look at AC, a heat pump, a dehumidifier, an EV, electric water heating or more people at home.

If usage barely changed but the bill rose sharply, that's much more clearly a price problem: supply, a supplier contract, transmission, delivery rates or riders.

Supplier Choice Can Be the Cheapest First Lever

Before installing anything, compare your current supply contract with your utility's Price to Compare. If you're paying well above it, fix the rate first.

But read the contract. One review of state data found that Illinois households on alternative suppliers have paid more than default supply on average. Over the most recent year reviewed, they paid about 1.28¢/kWh more in ComEd territory and about 3.05¢/kWh more in Ameren territory. The right question isn't “who has the cheapest advertised rate?” It's “what will this contract cost over its full term?”

Hourly and Time-of-Day Pricing Are Other Levers

Both utilities offer programs tied to hourly wholesale prices: ComEd's Hourly Pricing and Ameren's Power Smart Pricing. In 2026, ComEd also introduced optional time-of-day delivery pricing. So timing can now affect delivery charges as well as supply.

These can work well for homes that can shift EV charging, laundry, water heating or battery charging away from expensive hours. Savings aren't guaranteed, so the program has to fit the household.

HVAC Can Matter More Than the Rate Increase

Suppose electricity prices rise 10%, but an aging AC pushes annual use from 10,000 kWh to 13,000 kWh. That's a 30% load increase. At an all-in cost near 20¢/kWh, those 3,000 extra kWh cost about $600 a year. That can easily outweigh shaving 1–2¢ off a supply contract.

Fix the price, fix the load, then decide how much electricity is worth generating.

What About Solar in Illinois?

Illinois solar economics changed for new systems after January 1, 2025. Net metering is the credit you get for extra solar power you send to the grid. New net-metering customers generally get supply-side credits for exported electricity, not the old full-retail treatment. So solar value now depends more on self-consumption, utility rebates and Illinois Shines incentives.

Those incentives can still be significant. ComEd and Ameren offer $300/kW rebates for qualifying solar and $300/kWh for qualifying storage. Illinois Shines added a $20-per-REC bonus for customer-owned systems in 2026. (RECs are credits your system earns for the clean energy it produces.) A 2026 proposal shouldn't assume every exported kWh offsets the entire retail bill.

Don't Use the Old 30% Federal Solar Credit

The federal Residential Clean Energy Credit doesn't apply to expenditures made after December 31, 2025. A 2026 proposal that shows a “30% federal solar tax credit” is using outdated assumptions.

Batteries Have a Bigger Role Under the New Rules

New solar exports no longer offset the entire retail bill. So a battery can do more work: it can increase self-consumption, reduce expensive grid purchases and shift load. It can also provide backup power and potentially take part in future grid programs. But it still has to justify its cost, efficiency losses, degradation and financing. A battery is a tool, not an automatic add-on.

Four Illinois Homeowners, the Same $250 Bill, Different Answers

The Best Order for an Illinois Homeowner

  1. Identify your utility, since ComEd and Ameren are in different wholesale markets.
  2. Identify your supplier: default service, an alternative supplier or aggregation.
  3. Compare your supply rate against the current Price to Compare.
  4. Compare kWh year over year to separate rate increases from usage increases.
  5. Diagnose HVAC and efficiency, especially if usage rose.
  6. Review hourly or time-of-day pricing if your loads are flexible.
  7. Evaluate solar using the current post-2025 rules.
  8. Evaluate a battery separately for self-consumption, load shifting and backup.
  9. Treat future delivery increases as pending until they're approved.

Will Illinois Electricity Rates Keep Rising?

There's real upward pressure: capacity costs, transmission, distribution investment, data center growth, electrification and aging infrastructure. But that doesn't justify assuming 5%, 7% or 10% electricity inflation every year forever. Illinois prices move through supply auctions, two different wholesale markets, ICC proceedings, riders and customer choices. Some parts rise. Others fall, as both utilities' supply prices did this October.

The Ashborn Approach

Before recommending equipment, Ashborn Partners looks at the whole picture:

In Illinois, fix the price, fix the load, then decide how much electricity is still worth generating.

Illinois electricity prices vary by utility, supplier, region, tariff and household usage. Statewide average residential prices shown are monthly figures. Pending rate requests are not final until approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission. This article is not a prediction of future rates.

More Illinois Home Energy Guides

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Find My Savings to begin your personalized Ashborn home-energy review. An Advisor can help determine whether the biggest opportunity is changing supplier, reducing usage, improving HVAC, shifting electricity into cheaper hours, installing solar, adding storage, or simply understanding which part of the bill increased.

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Electricity prices vary by utility, supplier and household. Pending rate requests are not final until approved.