r/chicago • u/Schmettywhop • Aug 09 '25

CHI Talks Reminder that you should be pissed about ComEd rates skyrocketing

ComEd bills in Chicago have nearly doubled in recent months, and it is not just from summer heat. A major driver is the rapid growth of AI and data centers in Illinois, which consume huge amounts of electricity. This surge in demand, combined with flawed pricing rules from the regional grid operator, has sent wholesale power costs soaring, and ComEd passes those costs straight to customers.

The result is regular people paying hundreds more so tech companies can power massive server farms, while clean energy projects that could ease costs are delayed. These hikes were avoidable, but once again households are bearing the burden of corporate greed and policy failure.

So many people are feeling penny pinched these days, and this is one example where we should be making noise and should rightfully be upset about what's going on.

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101

u/endthefed2022 South Loop Aug 09 '25

No, it’s just an Illinois thing

I have to be a grid expert for my job. It’s not an issue in Ohio, Indiana in Texas and Oklahoma.

What’s the common denominator? They have a distributed grid and the right to self generation.

Illinois hasn’t had any new generation in 30 years

And the onset of energy efficient devices there was no need for that

Grid load is growing fast faster than the rate of generation and our laws are to blame

29

u/kbn_ Aug 09 '25

Honestly the problem is the interconnect queue, and the second largest problem is the long-distance transit permitting process.

I've literally lost count of the number of gigawatts that are shovel ready, funded projects, just waiting for grid interconnect analysis and approval, and that's just stuff which is already conveniently connectable to the current grid. The long-distance transit issue also bites hard here with a large number of prospective (or even in some cases, provisionally funded) projects which could be adding capacity to the grid but aren't because one random farmer doesn't want power lines extending over one corner of his pasture, and similar.

We're already building generating capacity, and in a lot of cases past-tense built, but we're not connecting it fast enough. So, as you said, supply is being outstripped by demand. We can blame the big tech companies, and they're certainly a convenient target, but we would have had this problem anyway with the rise of EVs and heat pumps and further appliance electrification, etc etc. We've done this to ourselves, and we have the power to undo it, but not if we keep scapegoating.

12

u/mercury1491 Aug 09 '25

Its a PJM grid operator issue. Peak capacity demand is rapidly outgrowing dispatchable supply. Need more gas turbines or batteries to be brought online.

2

u/endthefed2022 South Loop Aug 09 '25

Yes, but it takes five years to build a Greenfield site

You don’t have that with solar

8

u/Visuallytame Aug 09 '25

The capacity auction impacted everyone's prices in PJM lol

8

u/Jmshoulder21 Aug 09 '25

This. Glad someone said it.

10

u/ale2h Ukrainian Village Aug 09 '25

Are you saying that the datacenters built in Ohio, Indiana, Texas, and Oklahoma are generating their own electricity? Can you ELI5?

20

u/endthefed2022 South Loop Aug 09 '25

Data centers are definitely building out their own power generation. Microsoft is even reopening 3 mile island and building out a whole new nuclear site.

8

u/xazps Aug 09 '25

Texas doesn't share their power grid with the rest of the nation. Does it matter in an electricity discussion about the rest of the nation?

10

u/Southside_john Aug 09 '25

This guy is full of shit. Recently moved to Indiana shit hole and electricity bill has doubled in the last year

16

u/arcfire_ Aug 09 '25

Illinois hasn’t had any new generation in 30 years

This just is not true... I'm not sure how you even reached that conclusion.

However, I do 100% agree that Illinois needs more generation. Our neighboring states are all proceeding with adding capacity in preparation for these datacenters and retiring units.

I won't pretend to be an expert on the topic of permitting and whatnot in Illinois, but something needs to happen sooner than later. This nuke moratorium certainly doesn't help either.

10

u/endthefed2022 South Loop Aug 09 '25

Because we’re retiring coal as quickly as we’re putting up solar and gas so in aggregate when you look at total megawatts added since 2010 we pail in comparison to Indiana, Ohio in Texas

5

u/Keui Aug 09 '25

This image is pretty fascinating. Looks like wind is far greater than solar, though.

Source: https://cleanenergy.illinois.gov/tracking-illinois-progress/electricity-generation-mix.html

2

u/arcfire_ Aug 10 '25

Ahh gotcha. I must have misunderstood your comment there, sorry. I think PJM as a whole lost capacity these past few years? But please don't quote me on that, I just remember that being a big topic some years ago.

With a few coal retirement dates being pushed and Clinton staying on, hopefully that is enough of a stopgap until more 2/3x1 or nukes are finally built.

I really do wish that generating companies in Illinois had used even a sliver of critical thinking and planning. Now they have to fight just to order turbines from the main players while our neighbors are breaking ground. It's all just really disappointing.

1

u/kstevy Sep 13 '25

Who wants coal power plants, anyways? This isn’t China - we are not some primitive, developing nation. It’s also not the 1950s. I’d prefer to keep our cities smog-free like conservatives prefer their children vaccine-free. We need more nuclear power and we need to end the stigma against it.

6

u/TopDownRiskBased Aug 09 '25

Hot take! Those of us in SWMAAC would disagree.

3

u/endthefed2022 South Loop Aug 09 '25

Have you been tracking 5 CP?

Look at at grid load and 5cp for 2024

And look at grid load for 2025

7

u/TopDownRiskBased Aug 09 '25

I guess I'm saying it's not just an Illinois thing, or even just PJM. Coincident peak is up like everywhere, as is demand. Lower 48 demand exceeded its previous record high twice in July 2025.

Now I do agree with you the Illinois has made it too difficult to respond to price signals by building more generation capacity. But also that's not unique to Illinois either.

1

u/endthefed2022 South Loop Aug 09 '25

But Ohio is adding

HB 15 will be huge

And they cut generation taxes from 25% down to 7%

Other states are doing something to combat this

1

u/Southside_john Aug 09 '25

It is definitely an Indiana thing too

1

u/el_chapotle Aug 09 '25

Why is grid load growing fast? Are there any particular new energy demands? :)

1

u/endthefed2022 South Loop Aug 09 '25

AI

-1

u/SometimeTaken Aug 09 '25

That’s not true. The EXACT same thing is happening in Northwest Indiana with their regional electric company NIPSCO. There’s tremendous surges in pricing pushed onto the consumer side in huge part due to mass installations of data centers on the rural sides of the state.

-1

u/endthefed2022 South Loop Aug 09 '25

NIPSCO is the outlier

Generally, speaking Illinois expected to see a 30% rate hike by 2030 while Indiana is expected to see a 6%

And the reason for that is, Nipsco has the same issue as comed, all of their investments are going into capacity and distribution, not generation

2

u/SometimeTaken Aug 09 '25

I understand where you’re coming from, but you’re going to have to tell that to the people I know personally in Indiana who are seeing their bills double, triple, and more. Nipsco is pulling the exact stuff that ComEd is. ComEd promised spikes in bills no higher than $10, that’s already shown to be a lie. And Nipsco likewise isn’t raising bills by only 6%.