Illinois · Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC)

Auditing ComEd commercial bills

Northern Illinois, including the City of Chicago and its suburbs.

ComEd is the electric delivery utility for northern Illinois and is part of the PJM Interconnection. Illinois has retail choice, so most commercial customers buy supply from a retail electric supplier and pay ComEd for delivery under Rate RDS, Retail Delivery Service. Customers who do not choose a supplier take default supply from ComEd: the fixed-price Rate BES is available to smaller nonresidential customers, while larger customers take hourly pricing. Delivery charges are set by delivery class, from the Watt-Hour class for accounts without demand metering through Small, Medium, Large and Very Large Load classes based on demand. Each class carries its own customer, standard metering and distribution facilities charges. Because capacity and transmission obligations are set by PJM peak-hour measurements, a single high-demand afternoon can drive a site's costs for a full year. For multi-site operators, delivery class assignment, distribution facilities charges and supplier pass-through charges are where we find most errors.

Practice notes

Read ComEd and supplier charges together. A ComEd bill can include the supplier's charges under consolidated billing, or the supplier can bill separately. Errors in capacity and transmission pass-through charges sit with the supplier, while delivery class and distribution facilities charges sit with ComEd. We match each claim to the party that sets the charge.

Review each site's capacity and transmission obligations before summer. They are set from the site's load during PJM peak hours, and the supplier usually passes them through. An obligation set while a store had a refrigeration failure or a construction load can be checked against interval data and challenged with the supplier.

When a store closes, ask ComEd to close the account and notify the supplier separately. We regularly find ComEd delivery charges continuing for months after a closure, because the supplier contract ended but the ComEd account was never closed. The refund claim needs the closure date, the lease surrender and the final meter read.

Back-billing and refunds

Billing corrections at ComEd are governed by the Illinois Public Utilities Act, the Illinois Commerce Commission's rules and ComEd's tariff. Illinois law limits how far back a utility can bill for previously unbilled service and sets a time limit for customers to bring complaints about excessive or unjust charges to the ICC. Overcharge refunds for documented errors are calculated for the period the error affected, within those limits. Because a time limit applies to complaints, claims should be filed as soon as an error is found, and disputes escalated to the ICC promptly.

Findings we see most often

Wrong rate schedule
Accounts assigned to a higher delivery class than their demand history supports after load reductions.
Demand ratchet errors
Distribution facilities charges billed on a demand value that does not match the interval data for the period.
Closed and vacant site billing
Delivery and customer charges continuing at closed stores after the supplier contract ended.
Meter multiplier errors
CT-metered services with a multiplier left over from a previous meter configuration.

Commercial schedules we check

Schedule	Applies to	What we check
Rate RDS, Small LoadRetail Delivery Service, Small Load Delivery Class	Nonresidential accounts with maximum demand up to 100 kW.	Confirm the delivery class matches the account's demand history, and check that the distribution facilities charge is billed on the correct kW.
Rate RDS, Medium LoadRetail Delivery Service, Medium Load Delivery Class	Nonresidential accounts with maximum demand above 100 kW and up to 400 kW.	Rebuild the demand used for distribution facilities charges from interval data and check for misclassified accounts near the 100 kW and 400 kW boundaries.
Rate RDS, Large LoadRetail Delivery Service, Large Load Delivery Class	Nonresidential accounts with maximum demand above 400 kW and up to 1,000 kW.	Test distribution facilities charges and any reactive demand charges, and verify the meter multiplier on CT-metered services.
Rate RDS, Very Large LoadRetail Delivery Service, Very Large Load Delivery Class	Nonresidential accounts with maximum demand above 1,000 kW and up to 10,000 kW.	Check the delivery voltage and distribution facilities charges against the service agreement and interval data.
Rate BESBasic Electric Service	Fixed-price default supply from ComEd for smaller nonresidential customers who have not chosen a retail electric supplier.	Confirm a site was not returned to ComEd supply by mistake when a supplier contract lapsed, and compare BES charges with the supplier contract it replaced.

Schedule names and eligibility summarized from the utility's published tariff. The utility's current tariff book governs.

ComEd questions

Yes. We test supplier charges against your contract, including capacity and transmission pass-throughs, and file claims with the supplier.

By the account's maximum demand under ComEd's tariff. Accounts near a class boundary are the ones most often misclassified.

It depends on the error and Illinois limits on billing and complaints. We calculate every period still inside those limits and file promptly so none expire.

Audit your ComEd accounts.

Connect bills for up to 50 meters. Get the findings report in about three weeks. Pay nothing unless money comes back.

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from bill access to first findings report: 21 daysfrom bill access to first findings report
of filed claims accepted by the utility in full or in part: 94%of filed claims accepted by the utility in full or in part