Restructuring the Illinois Electric Service Industry
There are three steps to getting electricity: generation (production of electricity),
transmission (sending high voltage power to distribution points), and distribution
(delivering power to your business or home).
Illinois is establishing a competitive market for electric service and the generation portion is open to choice.
You will choose who provides the generation portion. Power will be sold not only by your current electric
utility company but also by other electric utilities and Alternative Retail Electric Suppliers (ARES).
Your current electric utility company remains responsible for delivering electricity. The current electric utility
company must provide reliable delivery service even if you choose a new supplier.
Making Choices
Electric restructuring empowers customers to choose who supplies the generation portion of the electric service. The supplier
can be the current electric utility or another supplier. You may choose the company that supplies your
electric generation based on your own needs and preferences. Those may include how or where the electricity is produced,
economic, or environmental support, the lowest price or total cost or the best combination of the prices, services and incentives.
No. You may choose to change suppliers or remain with your current electric utility. Regardless of which company you choose to generate electricity, your current electric company remains responsible for delivering your electricity and providing reliable delivery service.
After you sign an agreement with another supplier, that new supplier will notify your current utility.
The electric utility company cannot discriminate based on who supplies your generation. It must deliver electricity
to eligible customers regardless of their electricity suppliers. The ICC must review and approve any changes, terms, and
conditions for delivery service.
You will continue to receive the same service as you do now.
That depends. You'll need to compare prices and charges before changing suppliers.
Purchasing Power
- Remain with the current utility as a bundled customer (generation, transmission, and distribution).
- Elect to become a delivery services customer (As a delivery services customer you may purchase the generation portion of your electricity from another electric utility or from an ARES.
- ARES
- Aggregators, or group buyers
- Utilities, selling outside their service areas
Billing
If you choose to become a delivery services customer, expect changes in how you are billed. You may receive one
bill from the new supplier, or you may receive seperate bills - one from the electric supplier and one from the local utility
company that delivers electricity to you.
The charges on an electric bill could include:
- Generation charge for producing electricty
-
Transmission charge for transporting electricity from the generation source to the local utility.
-
Delivery service charge for distribution service provided by the electric utility company to keep
the transmission and distribution systems functioning so customers can receive electric service.
-
Customer charge, which is basic service charge to partially cover the costs of billing, meter reading,
equipment and service line maintenance.
Customer Rights
- Unauthorized switching of suppliers. The law prohibits switching customers without written authorization.
-
Terms of service. Before beginning to provide service, a supplier must provide a terms of service statement
detailing charges, length of the contract, process for notification regarding changes in terms of service and a toll-free number
to call.
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Access to billing data. Customers or authorized agents are entitled to obtain their billing and usage data from
the current electric utility upon request but may be required to pay a reasonable fee.
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Customer service call center. All electric utilities and alternative suppliers
are required to provide a customer service call center where consumers can receive assistance and information.
Understanding Key Terms
Aggregator
An entity that brings customers together to buy electricity in bulk in order to increase customers’ buying power. Aggregators facilitate the sale of power but usually are not sellers. Aggregators are defined as ARES only when they sell electricity.
Alternative Retail Electric Supplier (ARES)
Any person, corporation, generator, broker, marketer, aggregator or other entity certified by the ICC that sells electricity to customers.
Bundled Service
Full service, including generation, transmission, and distribution.
Delivery Services
Those services provided by the electric utility, including standard metering and billing that are necessary for the delivery of power to customers.
Distribution
The use of wires by the local utility to deliver electricity to a home or business. These services include standard metering.
Electric Utility
An entity that provides electric power generation and delivery services within a local service area and also may sell generation services to customers in other utility service territories.
Generation
The act of using fuels, such as fossil, nuclear or renewable energy, to make electricity.
Kilowatt or kW
The standard unit of measure of electric demand.
Kilowatt-hour or kWh
The standard unit of measure of electricity consumed.
Small commercial retail customer
A nonresidential retail customer that consumes 15,000 kilowatt-hours or less of electricity annually.
Transmission
The delivery of electricity from a generating facility to local utility facilities, typically over high-voltage power lines.