Alternative electricity suppliers are ripping off Illinois customers, says watchdog group

The Citizens Utility Board (CUB) Tuesday issued a statewide warning, urging Illinois consumers to beware of rip-offs being peddled door-to-door, via mail, and over the phone by alternative electricity suppliers.

Specifically, Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) and Ameren Illinois customers who have chosen alternative suppliers have lost a combined total of about $297 million over the last year, and $1.8 billion since 2015, the CUB said, citing annual state reports on electricity competition.

“Far too many Illinois consumers have suffered skyrocketing power bills because of an alternative electricity supplier,” CUB Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz said. “Going with an alternative offer pitched by a sales rep is a gamble you are likely to lose.”

While ComEd and Ameren deliver electricity to their customers over the power lines they own, those customers under Illinois law may choose another company to supply the actual electricity.

As of May, about 1.37 million Illinois residential consumers were with another supplier — a 22 percent increase from the year before, the CUB said.

The CUB analyzed information from the 2024 annual report released by the Illinois Commerce Commission’s (ICC’s) Office of Retail Market Development (ORMD), which focuses on electricity competition. The 2024 annual report covers June 1, 2023 through May 31, 2024.

In its review, the CUB found that ComEd customers who were with an alternative supplier on average paid about 3 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) more, compared with ComEd’s supply price.

Customers in Ameren territory who were with an alternative supplier on average paid about 2.4 cents per kWh more, compared with Ameren’s supply rate, the report said.

The highest alternative supplier rate the ICC found in ComEd territory was a 38.4 cents per kWh variable rate (a rate that can change monthly) in June 2023. In the same month, the ICC found a variable rate of 39.5 cents per kWh in Ameren territory. Both prices were about five times the utility supply price at the time.

The ICC also reported that in the early days of competition — from June 2011 through May 2014 — many people saved money with alternative suppliers, mainly because utilities were locked into more expensive electricity contracts.

However, once the utility contracts ended, competing suppliers had more difficulty beating the utility’s supply rate, and since then, “the results have been dismal for consumers,” according to the CUB’s review of ORMD reports since 2015.

The CUB calls alternative supplier rip-offs a top concern. “There are more reliable ways to reduce electric bills, including energy efficiency,” Moskowitz said.

The board also provided tips for customers, including to check the “Supply” section of their electric bills to see if they’re paying for an alternative supplier; to be wary about giving a bill or account number to just anybody; and if you’re on a “municipal aggregation” community power deal, to confirm the price, how it compares with the utility’s supply rate, and for how long the contract is, among others.

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