Ohio · EDU · PJM
Cleveland Electric Illuminating commercial electricity
The Illuminating Company is a FirstEnergy distribution utility providing regulated delivery.
Cleveland Electric Illuminating is the EDU serving Cleveland and surrounding north-eastern Ohio. It delivers power, owns the meter and restores outages under regulated tariffs. Eligible commercial accounts contract the supply portion separately. Accounts are keyed on Account number.
Source: Public Utilities Commission of Ohio market structure · 2026-10-31
Competitive supply market. Delivery, demand and fixed charges on a Cleveland Electric Illuminating account remain regulated regardless of which supplier you choose.
What the U.S. government data says about Cleveland Electric Illuminating
- Commercial customers81,6052025, EIA Form EIA-861
- Buy energy from a supplier94%of commercial kWh · 86% of customers
- Delivery price7.05¢average per kWh, delivery-only customers
- Default-service price18.11¢per kWh, customers on bundled service
- Outages136 mina year per customer · US average 124
In 2025, 94% of the commercial kWh delivered by Cleveland Electric Illuminating went to customers buying energy from a competitive supplier, and 6% stayed on the utility's default service. By customer count it is 86%, because the businesses that shop tend to be the larger ones.
Cleveland Electric Illuminating’s delivery charges averaged 7.05¢ per kWh across its 70,290 delivery-only commercial customers: the part of the bill no supplier can change. It is an average over customers of every size. Large customers pay far less per kWh than small ones, so your own delivery charge per kWh will differ; the average customer here used about 6,561 kWh a month.
Cleveland Electric Illuminating customers went without power for an average of 136 minutes in 2025, excluding major storms, with about 1.22 interruptions per customer. The average across U.S. utilities reporting the same way is 124 minutes.
EIA records Cleveland Electric Illuminating serving customers in 9 Ohio counties: Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage, Summit, Trumbull. A county can be shared between utilities, so this does not tell you who serves a given address.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861, 2025 final data. Averages across all commercial customers of each service type: dated context, not a quote and not an available offer.
What Cleveland Electric Illuminating controls and what it does not
| Element | Who sets it | Can a supplier change it? |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery and distribution charges | Cleveland Electric Illuminating, under regulated tariff | No |
| Demand charges | Cleveland Electric Illuminating, under regulated tariff | No |
| Fixed monthly service charge | Cleveland Electric Illuminating, under regulated tariff | No |
| Riders and surcharges | Regulated, by approved filing | No |
| Metering and outage response | Cleveland Electric Illuminating | No |
| Supply / generation | Competitive supplier, or default service | Yes — this is the contestable portion |
Cities and areas in this territory
Territory boundaries do not follow city limits. Two addresses on the same street can sit in different territories, which is why we confirm the Account number rather than inferring eligibility from the city or the ZIP code. Inferring from location is the most common way a commercial account is told it can do something it cannot.
Cleveland · Lakewood · Euclid
Which lever moves which charge
This is the question a utility page exists to answer. If you change something at the meter, which line on the bill actually moves — and which one does not move no matter what you do?
Schematic shapes, not Cleveland Electric Illuminating's actual rates — those come from the filed tariff. The point is the behaviour: two of these four respond to something you control, and a supplier changes none of them.
What sits inside the delivery charge from Cleveland Electric Illuminating
Delivery is not one number. On a commercial account it is typically assembled from several components, each set by the filed tariff and each behaving differently as your usage changes:
- A fixed customer or meter charge, which does not move with consumption at all.
- A volumetric distribution charge per kWh, which scales with how much you use.
- A demand charge per kW where the account is demand-metered, which scales with how hard you draw rather than how much you use — and which is where a low load factor account gets hurt.
- Riders and surcharges, adjusted periodically through regulatory filings, covering items such as transmission cost recovery, energy efficiency programs and storm or system restoration costs.
None of these changes when you change supplier. Understanding the mix matters because it determines which action actually moves your bill: reducing consumption attacks the volumetric component, reducing peak draw attacks the demand component, and neither one touches the fixed charge.
The other territories in Ohio
Boundaries do not follow city limits. If you are not certain which of these serves your address, confirm the Account number printed on the bill rather than inferring it from the city.
This page does not list Cleveland Electric Illuminating's rate schedules, demand thresholds or ratchet terms. Those come from the filed tariff, and we publish them only after reading the filing, so none appear here yet. Your schedule code is printed on the bill, and it is the first thing to look up.
What to pull off a Cleveland Electric Illuminating bill before any conversation
- Account number — the identifier that determines territory and eligibility
- Rate schedule code as printed on the bill
- 12 months of kWh, and peak kW if the account is demand-metered
- The delivery and supply sections, kept separate
- Current supplier and contract expiry, if any
Supplier comparison is not open in Ohio 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.