Here’s your opportunity to learn about restructuring in the Illinois electric industry:

The Illinois Electric Service Customer Choice and Rate Relief Law of 1997
In 1997, the Illinois General Assembly approved The Illinois Electric Service Customer Choice and Rate Relief Law, which created an open and competitive marketplace for electricity. The law separated the “wires” function of electric delivery from the power generation function under the premise that natural marketplace competition in the generation sector will serve consumers with greater efficiency and innovation.The restructuring law, enabled residential customers to benefit from up to a 20 percent rate cut (the largest in the nation), froze those rates until 2007 and gave large commercial and industrial customers the ability to choose their energy suppliers. That freeze expired in January 2007.

What does this mean today?
Starting in 2007, electric utilities like ComEd and Ameren purchase power on the open market, meaning customers pay competitive rates for the power they use plus a reasonable charge for delivering that electricity. Customers benefit from wholesale competition when utilities purchase power on the open market. This is good news for the Illinois electric industry and the Illinois economy, which depends upon a reliable source of electricity.