Electricity Bills
Commercial electricity bills summarize how utilities charge for power, but they often hide the mechanisms that create those costs. The articles below explain how to read a commercial electricity bill, how supply and delivery charges work, and why monthly bills alone cannot reveal the causes of high electricity costs.
Two questions arrive more often than any others. The first is why the total moved, and for a downstate account that means working out which part of an Ameren Illinois bill actually changed before deciding anything, or, if you hold sites in both territories, whether a quote for one Illinois utility transfers to the other. The second is which line items are worth arguing about, and on a ComEd bill four statutory riders answer that in their own text by stating that they apply to all retail customers.
27 articlesUpdated SEP 07 2026
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01Ameren Illinois or ComEd: Does a Quote for One Site Transfer to the Other?If you run sites in both Ameren Illinois and ComEd territory, a savings number from one does not carry to the other. Here is what transfers between the two, what does not, and which questions to ask before a portfolio decision.Read02ComEd Price to Compare: Is a Supplier Offer Cheaper for Your Business?A supplier offer only beats ComEd if it beats the Price to Compare on your own kilowatt hours, and it only ever reaches the supply half of the bill. How to run that comparison from your bills, and why switching so often barely moves the total.Read03Every Line on a ComEd Bill, What It Costs, and Whether You Can Avoid ItTen rider and adjustment lines on two real ComEd bills, each reconciled to the cent against the filed tariff. What each one is, who sets it, and which of them can actually be avoided. Most cannot. Two can.Read04Is ComEd Budget Billing Worth It?ComEd's budget plan equalizes your monthly payments; it does not change what you pay. What the filed tariff actually promises, what a true-up looks like, who it helps, and the one thing to check before you sign up so a level payment does not hide a rising bill.Read05ComEd Capacity Charge: Is It Worth Fighting on a Business Bill?A capacity charge is set by what your building drew during a handful of hours last summer, and it prices the whole year that follows. Whether it is worth fighting depends on how large it is on your bill and whether you can shed load for five afternoons.Read06Carbon-Free Energy Resource Adj: The Biggest Rider on a ComEd Bill Is a CreditThe Carbon-Free Energy Resource Adj on a ComEd bill is negative. It took $11.70 off one bill and $20.40 off another. It is the nuclear line, the filed tariff defines it that way, and the credit is scheduled to shrink.Read07What Is the Coal to Solar and Energy Storage Line on a ComEd Bill?The Coal to Solar and Energy Storage line on a ComEd bill buys renewable energy credits from solar built on former coal plant sites, and funds storage grants paid by the Illinois Treasurer. It was 0.009 cents per kWh from May 2026.Read08The ComEd Customer Charge, and Why Using Less Power Makes Your Rate Look WorseThe Customer Charge and Standard Metering Charge are $19.37 a month on a ComEd residential bill no matter what you use. That single fact explains 95 percent of the gap between two bills' all-in rates.Read09The Energy Efficiency Programs Line on a ComEd Bill, and Who Can Opt OutEnergy Efficiency Programs is one of the largest rider lines on a ComEd bill. Small business pays 0.876 cents per kWh against residential 0.369 in 2026, and it is the one line on the bill with a filed opt-out.Read10What Is the Environmental Cost Recovery Adj on a ComEd Bill?The Environmental Cost Recovery Adj line on a ComEd bill pays to clean up former manufactured gas plant sites. It was 0.009 cents per kWh from April to July 2026, which is 9 cents on a 953 kWh bill, and it drops in August.Read11The IL Electricity Distribution Charge on a ComEd Bill, ExplainedThe IL Electricity Distribution Charge is filed at $0.00124 per kWh for every ComEd delivery class, home or business, and prints at $0.00128 once two adjustment factors are applied. What it is, how the filed rate becomes the printed one, and why no supplier switch removes it.Read12What Is Low Income Discount Recovery on a ComEd Bill?Low Income Discount Recovery is a flat $1.35 a month on a ComEd residential bill, the same whatever you use. It funds a discount worth up to 80 percent of a qualifying household's bill, and eligibility runs to 300 percent of the federal poverty level.Read13The Purchased Electricity Adjustment on a ComEd Bill: 15 Months of Filed ValuesThe Purchased Electricity Adjustment on a ComEd bill changes every month and is a credit about as often as a charge. Here are the filed values from June 2025 to August 2026, including the 8.166 cent May 2026 outlier.Read14Rider ETAC, ZEA, CFRA and REA Are on Every ComEd Bill. Can You Avoid Any of Them?Four ComEd riders state in their own text that they are applicable to all retail customers. Switching suppliers does not remove them and no audit will find a way around them. Here is what that means for where to spend your attention.Read15State Tax and Municipal Utility Tax on a ComEd Bill: the Filed Rates, and What the Bill Does Not Tell YouThe State Tax on a ComEd home bill and the State Electricity Excise Tax on a business bill are the same tax, 0.330 cents per kWh on the first 2,000 kWh and stepping down through ten tiers. The Municipal Utility Tax is a rate each municipality sets. The filed tiers, a bill reconciled to the cent, and the three things the bill alone cannot tell you.Read16The Demand Charge Nearly Doubled While Usage Fell: A Distillery, Month by MonthFrom August 2024 a distillery's billed demand went from about 26 kW to 46 kW while its monthly usage fell 15 percent. Same-month comparisons, what the meter can and cannot say about what changed, and why the kWh line never showed it.Read17Electric Bill Calculator: Estimate Your Whole Bill, Not Just the RateFree electric bill calculator. Enter your expected kWh, your supply rate, your delivery rate and the fixed monthly charge, and see the whole bill estimated and broken into supply and delivery. Not usage times one rate.Read18Why Is My Electricity Delivery Charge So High?Delivery charges on a commercial electric bill can exceed the supply cost. See what drives them, how demand charges factor in, and why they run so high.Read19How to Read a ComEd Commercial Electricity Bill: kW, kWh and DemandRead a ComEd commercial bill line by line: the Peak Period Distribution Facilities Charge set between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM on weekdays, peak demand in kW, usage in kWh and the delivery class, on a real Small Load bill that reconciles to the cent.Read20How to Reduce My ComEd BillA ComEd bill has a small number of lines that actually move. Compare supply to the printed Price to Compare, use fewer kilowatt hours, claim Peak Time Savings when the credit already printed, and on a business cut the demand charge. The customer charge does not move.Read21kWh Calculator: Convert Watts and Kilowatts to Kilowatt-HoursFree kWh calculator. Convert watts or kilowatts to kilowatt-hours over any duration, or convert kWh back to average kilowatts. Pure unit conversion, no rates and no dollars, in your browser.Read22kWh Cost Calculator: What You Actually Pay Per kWhFree kWh cost calculator. Divide your bill total by the kWh it delivered to get the price per kWh you actually pay, including delivery, the customer charge and taxes. Not the rate printed on the bill.Read23The Winter Bill Doubled and the Overnight Floor Explains It: A Seasonal Site, Month by MonthA seasonal retail site used 2,400 to 2,800 kWh a month in the winter of 2023 to 2024 and 5,600 to 6,700 the next winter. Its overnight floor had gone from about 1 kW to nearly 6. Something started running around the clock in November 2024, and the meter says how big it was.Read24Why Are Ameren Illinois Rates Going Up? The Posted Price to Compare, Month by MonthAmeren Illinois' posted residential Price to Compare went from 8.769 to 11.326 cents per kWh on June 1, 2026, about 29 percent above May but about 7 percent below June 2025, while ComEd's went from 9.660 to 10.399. Every posted month since 2017 from the ICC, and what the step does and does not explain. Not reconciled to a bill.Read25Your ComEd Business Bill Jumped. Which of the Four Causes Was It?A ComEd business bill jumps for one of four reasons, and they are not equally fixable. Put this month's bill next to last month's and the four are separable in about ten minutes.Read26Your Ameren Illinois Bill Is High. Which Part of It Actually Moved?A higher Ameren Illinois bill has four possible causes and they call for four different responses. The posted supply price went from 8.769 to 11.326 cents per kWh on June 1, 2026, about 7 percent below June 2025. Here is how to tell which cause moved, using only bills you already have.Read27Why Is My ComEd Bill So High? Pick the Question, Get the ReadA high ComEd bill has a small number of causes: the rate you actually pay, the load that never turns off, something new that arrived, or the shape of your day. Pick yours and get a straight read, free.Read