Just reviewed ComEd's summer delivery charge adjustment and it's brutal - 18% increase over last summer. They're citing transmission investment recovery and grid modernization. Anyone else in northern Illinois seeing similar impacts? My industrial clients are getting hammered, especially on the higher voltage schedules. Rate HEP went from $4.82/kW to $5.68/kW for delivery alone.
ComEd summer 2025 delivery charges up 18% - what gives?
Yuri, we're seeing the same thing here in Ohio with FirstEnergy. Their transmission cost recovery factor jumped 22% this year. The problem is these transmission investments are getting approved at the PJM level without proper state oversight. Have you looked at challenging the allocation methodology? Sometimes the load flow studies they use are outdated.
Connecticut here - dealing with similar issues with UI and CL&P. Jim's right about the PJM allocations. We challenged UI's transmission cost recovery last year and found they were using 2009 load data for 2012 allocations. Got a $75K refund for one client just by proving the load patterns had shifted significantly.
Vince, that's a great point about the load data. ComEd's using 2011 summer peaks for these calculations but we had that mild summer in 2012. The coincident peak methodology might be overstating our facility's contribution to system costs. Worth digging into the hourly load data they have on file.
Check their Distribution System Improvement Charge too. We caught Duquesne Light here in Pittsburgh double-counting some smart meter costs - they had them in both the DSIC and base rates. Easy $120K recovery once we documented the overlap.
Walt makes a good point about double-counting. These delivery charge components are getting so complex that even the utility billing departments sometimes make mistakes. Always worth requesting a detailed breakdown of how they calculate each component of the delivery charge.