
Although residents of Kane County still receive a bill from ComEd for their energy consumption, due to new measures implemented in the country and throughout Illinois, they no longer are ComEd customers, the Kane County Chronicle reports.
According to the news source, in 2010, the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) changed how electricity usage was billed, allowing alternative energy providers to send bills found within the ComEd statements that customers had been receiving for years.
The change has made it even easier to switch energy providers, an option that has been available since 1997 through the enactment of electric deregulation. In the wake of the ICC rule change, competition has skyrocketed among smaller energy companies that deliver electricity to homes in the area, with substantial rate reductions. Many times, the savings, as compared to ComEd's prices, can be up to 20 percent, the media outlet stated.
Energy deregulation in Illinois has forced ComEd to adjust, as the company has now focused its services on distributing electricity provided by other companies for a fee, according to the Chronicle.
Many other states have seen similar laws, such as Connecticut, which deregulated energy in 1998.

