Illinois · Competitive supply market
Commercial electricity in Illinois
Eligible Illinois commercial accounts in ComEd and Ameren Illinois territory may purchase supply from a licensed retail supplier while delivery stays regulated. Municipal utility territories are separate and are not part of that market.
What Illinois businesses pay for electricity
Average commercial electricity price in Illinois
13.81¢ per kWh
12 months to August 2026 · EIA, preliminary
- vs US average (13.87¢)−0%below the national figure
- vs previous 12 months+9.1%from 12.66¢
- Final 2025 (EIA-861)13.10¢18th highest of 51 markets
- Average commercial customer5,997 kWha month, about 786 at the 2025 average
- Since 2020+43%US +26% over the same years
Show the numbers
| Period | Illinois | United States |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 8.88¢ | 10.19¢ |
| 2011 | 8.64¢ | 10.24¢ |
| 2012 | 7.99¢ | 10.09¢ |
| 2013 | 8.14¢ | 10.26¢ |
| 2014 | 9.26¢ | 10.74¢ |
| 2015 | 9.02¢ | 10.64¢ |
| 2016 | 9.02¢ | 10.43¢ |
| 2017 | 9.09¢ | 10.66¢ |
| 2018 | 9.12¢ | 10.67¢ |
| 2019 | 9.08¢ | 10.68¢ |
| 2020 | 9.15¢ | 10.59¢ |
| 2021 | 9.65¢ | 11.22¢ |
| 2022 | 11.32¢ | 12.41¢ |
| 2023 | 11.24¢ | 12.59¢ |
| 2024 | 11.81¢ | 12.75¢ |
| 2025 | 13.10¢ | 13.37¢ |
| 12 months to Aug 2026 (preliminary) | 13.81¢ | 13.87¢ |
Where the Illinois price goes
Where businesses buy energy from a competitive supplier, EIA reports the supplier's revenue and the utility's delivery revenue separately. In Illinois in 2025, 41% of the average commercial price was delivery — the part that does not change when you change supplier.
7.38¢ energy 5.10¢ delivery 66% of Illinois's commercial kWh is sold this way
This is the average revenue per kWh from every commercial customer in Illinois, from a corner shop to a hospital: energy, delivery, demand and other charges billed, divided by kWh sold. The average customer uses more than a typical small business, because a few very large customers pull the mean up. It is dated context for reading a bill — not a quote, not an available offer, and not what any one business pays.
What a typical building pays in Illinois
The same federal survey of commercial buildings behind the cost estimator, run for a typical-sized building of eight common kinds and priced at Illinois's average commercial price for the 12 months to August 2026. Typical size is the median floor area of the surveyed buildings of that kind, and the middle half is the range between the 25th and 75th percentile of them.
| Building | Typical size | Typical bill | Middle half | Survey basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office building | 5,000 sq ft | $510 | $360 to $720 | 269 in the Midwest |
| Medical, dental or outpatient clinic | 5,500 sq ft | $870 | $520 to $1,400 | 257 nationwide |
| Retail store or showroom | 6,500 sq ft | $760 | $400 to $1,100 | 81 in the Midwest |
| Grocery or convenience store | 2,400 sq ft | $1,500 | $1,000 to $2,200 | 91 nationwide |
| Sit-down restaurant or cafeteria | 3,850 sq ft | $1,800 | $1,000 to $2,500 | 132 nationwide |
| Warehouse or distribution centre | 6,700 sq ft | $220 | $120 to $600 | 169 in the Midwest |
| Hotel, motel or inn | 12,000 sq ft | $2,100 | $1,300 to $3,000 | 304 nationwide |
| Gym, fitness or recreation facility | 8,300 sq ft | $890 | $670 to $1,700 | 148 nationwide |
A screening estimate, not a quote. The price is an average across every commercial customer in Illinois, scaled for building size, and the buildings are whole buildings from EIA's 2018 survey, so a suite inside a larger building, or one with unusual hours or equipment, can differ a lot. Estimate your own building in Illinois, or check a real bill.
What utilities billed commercial customers in Illinois
For each utility, EIA records how many commercial customers it had in 2025 and the average revenue per kWh it billed them. The 10 largest of 21 Illinois utilities with 500 or more commercial customers are shown.
| Utility | Type | Bundled customers | Bundled price per kWh | Delivery-only customers | Delivery-only price per kWh |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth Edison Co | Investor-owned | 241,249 | 15.13¢ | 161,260 | 5.27¢ |
| Ameren Illinois Company | Investor-owned | 75,726 | 14.60¢ | 90,423 | 4.74¢ |
| MidAmerican Energy Co | Investor-owned | 12,771 | 7.49¢ | 59 | 2.04¢ |
| City of Springfield | Municipal | 11,505 | 14.48¢ | 0 | — |
| City of Naperville | Municipal | 6,792 | 11.39¢ | 0 | — |
| Jo-Carroll Energy, Inc | Cooperative | 2,904 | 17.66¢ | 0 | — |
| Southeastern IL Elec Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 2,555 | 14.91¢ | 0 | — |
| Corn Belt Energy Corporation | Cooperative | 2,513 | 13.27¢ | 0 | — |
| Eastern Illinois Elec Coop | Cooperative | 2,328 | 16.31¢ | 0 | — |
| Norris Electric Coop | Cooperative | 2,214 | 13.45¢ | 0 | — |
Together the 10 shown serve about 95% of Illinois’s 644,575 commercial customers, and all 21 serve about 97%. All Illinois commercial customers together averaged 13.10¢ per kWh in 2025.
Bundled is the price paid by commercial customers who buy their energy and delivery from the utility, so it is an all-in price. Delivery-only is what the utility billed customers who buy their energy from a competitive supplier, so it is the delivery charge alone and cannot be compared with a bundled price. Each figure averages every commercial customer of that utility and service type, from a corner shop to a campus, so a utility with larger customers averages a lower price per kWh. It is dated context, not a quote and not an offer, and the utility that serves an address is named on its bill.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861, 2025 final data. Utilities across the country · every utility as a CSV.
Eligible Illinois commercial accounts in ComEd and Ameren Illinois territory may purchase supply from a licensed retail supplier while delivery stays regulated. The local utility continues to own delivery, metering and outage response under regulated tariffs that no supplier can change. Eligibility is confirmed from the account and its utility territory, keyed on the Account number, never from a ZIP code.
Source: Illinois Commerce Commission market structure; this site's market registry · 2026-10-31
Competitive supply market. Running the RFP itself may require an ABC licence. Exclude municipal utilities from blanket claims.
What an Illinois commercial account can actually do
Eligible commercial accounts in Illinois can award a supply contract to a licensed supplier. The local utility continues to deliver the power, own the meter and restore outages, and continues to charge for that under a regulated tariff that no supplier can change.
That means two separate pieces of work, and the second is the one most buyers never get done:
- The supply decision. Run a real, time-boxed competition among qualified suppliers on identical verified facts, then hold the contract to what was awarded.
- The regulated half. Rate schedule fit, demand charges, ratchet exposure, power factor and billing accuracy. No supplier earns anything here, which is precisely why no supplier raises it.
Utility territories in Illinois
Eligibility is determined by the utility territory serving the specific service address, not by the state and not by the ZIP code. One city can cross more than one territory.
| Utility | Role | Account keyed on | Territory |
|---|---|---|---|
| ComEd | Delivery utility | Account number | Chicago and northern Illinois. |
| Ameren Illinois | Delivery utility | Account number | Central and southern Illinois. |
Where Illinois sits
Every US market on one view, coloured by what an account can actually do there. Illinois is highlighted, and every other tile is a link.
- 14 you can choose — businesses can pick their supplier
- 6 some can choose — by size, cap or program
- 31 utility only — other charges can still be fixed
Number on each tile: average commercial electricity price in cents per kWh, 12 months to August 2026 (EIA, preliminary).
Worth knowing in Illinois specifically
Beyond the ordinary demand charge on your own peak, the grid serving Illinois allocates a further cost through a small number of hours per year. It is a delivery-side mechanism, so no supplier is involved and no supply contract affects it.
The timing matters: the work that reduces next year's charge has to happen during the window that sets it, not during the year you are paying it.
Before we can answer anything specific
We verify from the account, not from the address alone:
- The utility territory actually serving the service address
- Account number and customer class
- Current supply arrangement, including any aggregation and its termination status
- Contract expiry date and whether the decision window is open
- 12 months of consumption and, where metered, peak demand
Supplier comparison is not open in Illinois yet. The free bill check shows how much of your bill a supplier could even touch and what is worth a look today, which is the same first step whichever way you go.