Client's ComEd bill has an "Environmental Cost Recovery" rider that went from $0.0021/kWh to $0.0068/kWh between September and October. That's more than a 3x increase. On 200,000 kWh/month that's an extra $940/month. The client is panicking. Is this a billing error or a legitimate rate increase?
Environmental compliance rider tripled overnight — is this normal?
Check the ICC (Illinois Commerce Commission) docket for ComEd's environmental rider. Environmental compliance riders can increase significantly when a utility completes a major environmental project — like a coal ash remediation or emission control upgrade — and starts recovering the cost through the rider. A 3x increase is dramatic but not impossible if a major project cost just hit the rider. The ICC would have approved the increase before it appeared on bills.
Before assuming it's legitimate, verify the rate. Pull the ICC-filed rider schedule for October and check whether $0.0068/kWh is the correct rate for your client's customer class. Even if the rider legitimately increased, the billing system might have applied the wrong class rate or the wrong effective date. I've seen riders increase legitimately but the billing system apply the new rate one month early, creating a one-month overcharge. Check the effective date in the ICC order against when the new rate appeared on the bill.
Also worth checking — did ComEd reclassify the rider categories? Sometimes what looks like a dramatic increase in one rider is actually the consolidation of two or more riders into a single line item. The total rider cost might not have changed much even though one line item tripled.
Checked the ICC filing. The increase is legitimate — ComEd completed a $200M environmental remediation project. But Phil's point about effective date was right — the new rate should have started November 1, not October 1. My client was overcharged for one month at the higher rate. Small dollar amount but a valid finding. Good call.