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ICC: ComEd customers paying more than last year

ComEd customers are paying 11 percent more for power this year, compared to a year ago, due to whole sale prices, the Illinois Commerce Commission said Wednesday.

A customer's bill includes the charges for electricity and charges for delivering power. The increase in the price of electricity this summer is on a total bill for a typical customer.

The electricity price increase is unrelated to ComEd's recent filing with the ICC to increase delivery service rates. The review of that case will not be completed until the spring of 2011.

"It applies to those customers who buy power from ComEd, not customers who are purchasing electricity from an alternative retail electric supplier, most likely commercial or industrial customers," said ICC spokeswoman Beth Bosch.

The recent price increase is the result of an increase in the quantity and price of capacity purchased from the regional transmission organization, and an increase in the quantity and price of energy contracts that were signed in 2007 in conjunction with the enactment of the Illinois Power Agency Act, she said.

Power contracts purchased during the 2006 Illinois power auction have expired and were replaced mainly with energy contracts entered into several years ago that include higher prices than forward contracts purchased in the past two procurements.