ComEd rates 2026: price per kWh, supply and delivery

Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) delivers electricity to about 4 million customers across northern Illinois, including Chicago. This page covers the default fixed-price residential rate: the all-in price per kWh, the supply charge (the Price to Compare), the delivery charges line by line, how the rate changes between summer and winter, and when the default fixed rate beats ComEd Hourly Pricing.

Every line item on a ComEd bill, explained

A ComEd residential bill splits into two halves: supply (the energy itself) and delivery (moving it through the wires). For a default fixed-price customer in early 2026 the pieces are: the supply Price to Compare at 9.66 cents per kWh (this already bundles the electric supply charge and the transmission services charge); the Distribution Facilities Charge at 6.228 cents per kWh; the Illinois electricity distribution tax at about 0.126 cents per kWh; a monthly Customer Charge of $15.26; and a Standard Metering Charge of $3.81 per month. Add it up and the per-kWh charges come to about 16 cents, with roughly $19 of fixed monthly charges on top before state and local taxes.

Only the supply half is competitive. The delivery charges, the customer charge and the metering charge are set by ComEd and approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission through the annual grid-plan and formula-rate process; you pay them whether your supply comes from ComEd's default rate or from an alternative supplier. This is why shopping offers that advertise a low supply rate can be misleading: supply is about 60 percent of the bill, so a 10 percent cut on supply is only a 6 percent cut on the total.

Worked example: a 700 kWh month

Take a household using 700 kWh in a non-summer month on the default fixed-price supply. Supply: 700 kWh at 9.66 cents is $67.62. Delivery: 700 kWh at about 6.35 cents (Distribution Facilities plus the distribution tax) is about $44.45. Fixed charges: $15.26 customer charge plus $3.81 metering, so $19.07. That totals about $131 before taxes and any monthly Purchased Electricity Adjustment. In a summer month the same 700 kWh costs about $5 more because the supply Price to Compare steps up to 10.399 cents, and real usage is usually higher in summer from AC load, so summer bills routinely run $40 to $80 above winter for the same home.

Summer versus non-summer supply

ComEd's default supply price changes twice a year. The non-summer Price to Compare of 9.66 cents per kWh runs October through May; the summer Price to Compare of 10.399 cents per kWh runs June 1 through September 30, 2026 (a supply charge of 8.677 cents plus a transmission services charge of 1.722 cents). The early-2026 supply rate is roughly 47 percent higher than a year earlier, reflecting the record 2025-2026 PJM capacity auction outcome that raised wholesale power costs across the region. A separate Renewable Energy Adjustment, standardised at about 0.1722 cents per kWh from June 2026, appears in the taxes-and-fees section rather than in the supply rate.

On top of the seasonal supply rate sits the Purchased Electricity Adjustment, recalculated every month to reconcile what ComEd projected against what power actually cost. It can add or subtract a fraction of a cent per kWh, which is why two months at the same headline rate and the same usage can still produce slightly different supply totals.

Fixed price versus ComEd Hourly Pricing

The default fixed-price supply is one predictable rate per season. ComEd also offers Hourly Pricing, where the supply price tracks the real-time wholesale market hour by hour instead of a flat seasonal number. Hourly Pricing usually averages below the fixed Price to Compare, but it spikes during grid-stress hours (summer weekday late afternoons, winter cold snaps), so the saving depends entirely on whether a household can move discretionary load away from those windows.

Households that can run laundry, the dishwasher and EV charging overnight, and pre-cool the home before summer afternoons, typically save 10 to 30 percent on the supply portion versus the fixed rate. Households with heavy unavoidable afternoon AC use can pay more. The Citizens Utility Board runs a free tool that models your last 12 months of usage on each plan, which is the right way to decide. Our ComEd Hourly Pricing guide covers the real-time rate, the typical weekday price shape and the volatility risk in detail.

Switching supply: ARES and municipal aggregation

Illinois is a deregulated supply state. ComEd stays your delivery utility, but you can buy the supply portion from a licensed Alternative Retail Electric Supplier (ARES) or, if your municipality runs one, through a community aggregation program that negotiates a bulk supply rate on behalf of all residents. Either way the number to beat is the Price to Compare: 9.66 cents per kWh through May 2026.

The caution is the same one the Illinois Commerce Commission and Citizens Utility Board give: many residential customers who signed individual ARES contracts, especially variable-rate teaser offers that flip to high rates after a few months, ended up paying more than ComEd's default. If you shop, take only fixed-rate offers with an explicit end date and no automatic renewal to a variable rate, and always check the offer against the current Price to Compare before signing. The Illinois Plugin site maintains an official Price to Compare and a list of licensed suppliers.

Help with a high ComEd bill

Illinois income-qualified households can apply for LIHEAP (the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program), administered through local Community Action Agencies, which provides a one-time annual benefit toward the energy bill, and the Percentage of Income Payment Plan (PIPP), which caps the monthly electric payment at a set share of household income with the balance covered by monthly benefit credits. ComEd also offers budget billing to level payments across the year and its own hardship and past-due assistance programs. These are separate from the rate itself and stack on top of whichever supply option you choose.

Sources and further reading

• Illinois Plugin: ComEd Price to Compare
• ComEd current rates and tariffs
• Citizens Utility Board: 2026 electric rates report
• ComEd Hourly Pricing 2026 (the real-time alternative)
• Illinois state electricity cost page
• PJM capacity costs (why 2026 supply rose)
• All utility rate guides
• How we source these numbers

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