June 20, 2012 – As new electric rates for Commonwealth Edison customers go into effect this month, residents of all-electric buildings such as Marina City are losing a special rate.

In the 1960s, ComEd started offering incentives to condominiums heated with electricity. In 2007, the utility tried to eliminate the residential electric space-heating rate but after complaints from citizens, the Illinois legislature reinstated the special rate.

(Left) A General Electric thermostat from the 1960s.

However, on May 29, 2012, the discount came to an end, as the Illinois Commerce Commission gave approval to ComEd to phase out the rate over the next several years, with the first round of rate increases taking effect on June 1. June through September, the cost per kilowatt-hour will go up three percent but from October through May, the increase will be 22 percent.

The Citizens Utility Board was not in favor of eliminating the special rate, telling the ICC that rates would go up $42 per year for a typical apartment.

ComEd is finding itself with more electricity than it can use after losing as many as 200 municipal customers to competitors. Since the electricity market was deregulated 13 years ago, the ICC says ComEd has also lost seven percent of an estimated three million household customers.

Rate increases have been looming since February as the utility tries to cover its costs. ComEd says the extra electricity was purchased on behalf of its customers, and they should be obligated to pay for it. The changes affect just the cost of the energy itself and not delivery.

Sheli Lulkin, editor of condobytes.info, assisted with this story.