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Average Electric Bill in Illinois (2026): What ComEd and Ameren Homes Really Pay, and What Moves October 1
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Average Electric Bill in Illinois (2026): What ComEd and Ameren Homes Really Pay, and What Moves October 1

Ryan Cook••

The average Illinois home used 693 kWh a month and paid $109.99 in 2024, the most recent full year the U.S. Energy Information Administration has published. Run that same 693 kWh through the rates in effect today and the estimate comes to roughly $147 a month on Ameren Illinois and $136 on ComEd before taxes and small riders, about 34 percent and 24 percent above the 2024 average. A 1,000 kWh summer month is closer to $206 on Ameren and $188 on ComEd. Those are estimates built from published tariff lines, not billed averages, and the Ameren number is about to move: Ameren's October 2026 supply sheet posted in late September, and it points to a non-summer supply price near 10.4¢ instead of this summer's 11.326¢.

I get asked "is my bill normal?" more than any other question, usually with the bill already on the table. The honest answer needs two numbers, your kilowatt-hours and your utility, because a $200 bill can be a bargain in one house and a warning sign in the one next door. This post gives you the tables to check yourself, then explains why almost everyone's bill sits above the published average.

Key facts behind a 2026 Illinois electric bill

Line Figure In effect
Illinois average residential bill (EIA) $109.99/month on 693 kWh at 15.87¢/kWh Calendar 2024
U.S. average residential bill (EIA) $142.26/month on 863 kWh at 16.48¢/kWh Calendar 2024
Ameren Illinois supply (Price to Compare) 11.326¢/kWh, first 800 kWh June 1 – Sept 30, 2026
Ameren Illinois non-summer energy charge (October rate sheet) 7.310¢/kWh first 800 kWh, 5.131¢ above Effective October 2026
Ameren supply adjustments on that sheet Supply Cost Adjustment 0.313¢, Rider EUA 0.053¢, Purchased Electricity Adjustment (0.028)¢ October 2026
Ameren transmission charge 2.765¢/kWh Effective June 2026
Ameren distribution delivery 7.811¢/kWh summer; 4.572¢ first 800 kWh and 2.427¢ above, non-summer 2026 billing periods
Ameren fixed charges About $14.51/month (customer + meter) 2026
ComEd supply (Price to Compare) 10.399¢/kWh June 1 – Sept 30, 2026
ComEd supply, last non-summer period 9.689¢ Oct – Dec 2025; 9.660¢ Jan – May 2026 For reference; October 2026 not posted
ComEd delivery, single-family non-electric-heat 6.333¢/kWh + 0.128¢ distribution tax; $15.50 customer + $3.87 metering Bills from April 2026

Every bill total below is an estimate for a typical home built from those lines. Taxes, the municipal utility tax where your town has one, and the state program riders sit on top; on Ameren's own sample bill they came to about 1.8¢ per kWh.

The average bill, by usage

Here is the same arithmetic at four usage levels. The summer columns use the published rates. The Ameren non-summer column uses the October rate sheet figures with the current adjustments and transmission charge, which is an estimate until the ICC posts the official Price to Compare. The ComEd non-summer column is illustrative only: it uses last winter's 9.660¢ because the October 2026 price is not out yet.

Updated September 30, 2026: 11.326¢ (Ameren Illinois) and 10.399¢ (ComEd) are the June 1 – September 30, 2026 rates. From October 1, 2026 through May 31, 2027, the Price to Compare is 10.441¢/kWh on the first 800 kWh and 8.262¢ above 800 for Ameren Illinois, and 10.103¢/kWh for ComEd, per the Illinois Commerce Commission's Plug In Illinois pages.

Monthly usage Ameren, summer 2026 Ameren, Oct 2026 – May 2027 (est.) ComEd, summer 2026 ComEd, non-summer (illustrative at 9.660¢)
500 kWh $110 $90 $104 $100
693 kWh (state average) $147 $119 $136 $131
1,000 kWh $206 $156 $188 $181
1,500 kWh $302 $209 $272 $261

Some rough guides for placing yourself, from the bills I see: 500 kWh is a small house or condo with gas heat and a light hand on the thermostat. Around 700 is an average three-bedroom outside the peak months. A thousand is that same three-bedroom in July with central air running, or a bigger house in spring. Fifteen hundred and up usually means electric heat, a pool pump, a well, or a house over 3,000 square feet in Champaign or Schaumburg with two air conditioners. Your bill's usage line is the number to match against this table, not the dollar total.

Two things jump out of the table. The Ameren summer column is the highest in the state, and the Ameren winter column is the lowest for big users, because of the 800 kWh tier where both supply and delivery step down. ComEd runs flatter across the year; its delivery rate has no seasonal split, and its fixed charges are about $5 a month higher.

Why your bill is higher than "the average"

The EIA average is a real number and it's still the wrong benchmark for a 2026 bill, for four reasons.

It's a 2024 number. Illinois supply prices jumped on June 1, 2025, when the regional capacity auctions landed on bills. ComEd's Price to Compare went from 6.552¢ to 10.028¢, Ameren's from 8.277¢ to 12.180¢, and neither has come back down to 2024 levels. The 2024 average was assembled from bills that never saw those prices. I keep the dated history in every ComEd and Ameren increase since 2021.

It blends everyone. The statewide figure averages roughly 5.4 million residential customers across ComEd, Ameren, the municipal utilities, and the co-ops, and across all twelve months. April and October bills pull the average down; July and January push it up. Nobody actually receives the average bill.

Fixed charges punish small users. Ameren's $14.51 and ComEd's $19.37 land on every bill regardless of usage. At 500 kWh, ComEd's fixed charges alone are almost 4¢ per kWh; at 1,500 kWh they're barely more than a penny. That's why a modest apartment can show a per-kWh cost above 20¢ while a big house shows 17¢.

Supply is only about half. On a 1,000 kWh summer bill, supply is an estimated 55 percent of the total on both utilities. The other 45 percent is delivery and fixed charges, which don't drop in October and step up each year under multi-year rate plans the Illinois Commerce Commission has already approved. The Ameren bill breakdown and the ComEd delivery charge breakdown walk through those lines one at a time.

What Ameren's October rate sheet says

Ameren Illinois posted its 124th Informational Sheet, effective October 2026, in late September. It's the monthly document the Price to Compare is built from, and it lists the non-summer energy charge at 7.310¢ per kWh on the first 800 kWh and 5.131¢ above, alongside a Supply Cost Adjustment of 0.313¢, a Rider EUA adjustment of 0.053¢, and a Purchased Electricity Adjustment of minus 0.028¢ for the month. The ICC leaves that last item out of the Price to Compare, so I do too.

The Price to Compare adds the transmission charge to the energy charge and the two adjustments. This summer's 11.326¢ came from 8.200¢ energy plus 0.308¢ and 0.053¢ in adjustments plus 2.765¢ transmission, and if the transmission charge holds, October works out to an estimated 10.44¢ on the first 800 kWh and 8.26¢ above. Treat that as my arithmetic, not the official number. One wrinkle: Ameren's annual supply sheet from June had listed the non-summer charge at 7.074¢ and 5.194¢, which would put the price nearer 10.2¢, and the October monthly sheet carries the higher first-tier figure. Until the ICC posts, the honest range is about 10.2¢ to 10.4¢. The ICC's Plug In Illinois page still showed only the summer price as of September 23, and the October rate post will carry the posted figure the day it lands.

Here's the part I'd want to know if I lived in Decatur or Belleville: this year's supply cut is small. Last October the price fell 31 percent. This October it's an estimated 8 percent, from 11.326¢ to about 10.44¢, worth about $7 on 800 kWh. The real October relief on an Ameren bill comes from the delivery schedule, which drops from 7.811¢ to 4.572¢ on the first 800 kWh and 2.427¢ above. On a 1,000 kWh month that's an estimated $37 from delivery and $13 from supply, about $50 total, plus whatever you save by using less once the air conditioner rests.

ComEd's October supply price wasn't posted as of September 23. Last year it went from 10.027¢ in September to 9.689¢ in October, a much smaller step than Ameren's, and ComEd's delivery has no seasonal rate at all. A ComEd bill drops in October mostly because usage drops.

ComEd vs. Ameren: who pays more?

In summer, Ameren, and it isn't close for big users: an estimated $302 versus $272 at 1,500 kWh. In winter it flips for anyone above 800 kWh, because Ameren's second tier cuts both supply and delivery while ComEd's rates stay level. At the state-average 693 kWh the two utilities are within about $12 of each other in either season. The full comparison, including the rate-case pipeline behind each one, is in ComEd vs. Ameren: which costs more, and the current numbers are always on the Ameren rates and ComEd rates pages.

Two more things distort the comparison in real life. Municipal aggregation deals replace the supply line in a lot of downstate towns, and most of them currently cost more than Ameren's price; Peoria's runs 13.29¢ through June 2027, which I covered in why Peoria bills keep rising. And if you're on budget billing, the number you see each month is a rolling average that settles up later, which is how a rate increase shows up months late.

What a solar lease replaces on that bill

Solar makes electricity, so it takes aim at the supply lines first. Every kilowatt-hour your roof produces and your house uses at that moment never crosses the meter, which means it carries no supply charge and no per-kWh delivery charge either. What you keep paying is the fixed customer and meter charges, the small riders, and the supply and delivery on whatever you import at night. For systems connected since January 1, 2025, Illinois uses supply-only net metering, so exported midday power earns supply credit but not delivery credit.

With a $0-down lease, the supply half of the bill becomes a predictable rate as low as $0.10 per kWh, with the full 25-year rate schedule set in the contract before you sign, and a battery included so more of your own production gets used in the house. Compare that to summer supply of 10.399¢ on ComEd and 11.326¢ on Ameren, and to an Ameren winter price that looks like it will land near 10.4¢. The gap is widest in summer, when supply and delivery are both at their peak; in winter, on Ameren, most of the lease's estimated savings come from the delivery you avoid on self-consumed power rather than from the supply price itself. I'd rather tell you that in September than have you find it on a January bill. What a lease costs month to month is in solar lease cost per month in Illinois. Income-qualified households should look at Illinois Solar for All first.

All of it is an estimate until it's your bill. Run a real one through the savings calculator, or send me the PDF and I'll mark up every line with you. Call (618) 217-2001 or get in touch here.

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

The last full-year figure from the U.S. Energy Information Administration puts the average Illinois residential bill at $109.99 a month on 693 kWh of use, at an average price of 15.87¢ per kWh, for calendar 2024. Rates have risen since then, so the 2024 average understates what a home pays today. Run the same 693 kWh through the tariff lines in effect through September 30, 2026 and my estimate comes to about $136 a month on ComEd and about $147 on Ameren Illinois, before taxes and the small program riders that add roughly $10 to $15 more. A home using 1,000 kWh in a hot month lands closer to $188 on ComEd and $206 on Ameren. Those are estimates built from published supply and delivery rates, not billed averages, and the Ameren figure should ease in October when the non-summer supply price and the lower non-summer delivery schedule both take effect.
ComEd's supply price is 10.399¢ per kWh from June 1 through September 30, 2026, per the Illinois Commerce Commission's Price to Compare page. Delivery for a single-family home without electric heat adds 6.333¢ per kWh plus 0.128¢ in distribution tax, along with a $15.50 customer charge and a $3.87 metering charge every month. Put together, a Chicago-area home pays an estimated 16.9¢ per kWh plus $19.37 in fixed charges. At 500 kWh that works out to roughly $104 a month, at the state-average 693 kWh about $136, at 1,000 kWh about $188, and at 1,500 kWh about $272, all before taxes and small riders. ComEd's October 2026 supply price had not been posted as of September 23. Last winter's was 9.689¢ from October through December 2025, then 9.660¢ from January through May 2026, so the seasonal change on ComEd is usually modest compared with Ameren's.
There is no published average, so I build it from the tariff. Ameren Illinois' supply price is 11.326¢ per kWh on the first 800 kWh through September 30, 2026, and summer delivery adds 7.811¢ per kWh plus about $14.51 a month in fixed customer and meter charges. That is an estimated 19.1¢ per kWh plus the fixed charges: roughly $110 at 500 kWh, $147 at the state-average 693 kWh, $206 at 1,000 kWh, and about $302 at 1,500 kWh before taxes and riders. Winter looks different. Ameren's October 2026 rate sheet, posted in late September, lists the non-summer energy charge at 7.310¢ on the first 800 kWh and 5.131¢ above, which with the current adjustments and transmission charge implies a supply price near 10.4¢. Delivery drops to 4.572¢ on the first 800 kWh. My estimate for a 1,000 kWh non-summer month is about $156, roughly $50 below the same usage in August.
On Ameren Illinois, yes, and by more than the supply headline suggests, because two things change at once. The supply price resets from 11.326¢ to a non-summer figure that Ameren's October rate sheet implies is near 10.4¢ on the first 800 kWh, an estimated 8 percent drop, much smaller than last October's 31 percent cut. The bigger change is the delivery schedule: the distribution charge falls from 7.811¢ per kWh to 4.572¢ on the first 800 kWh and 2.427¢ above that. On a 1,000 kWh month, the delivery switch alone is worth an estimated $37, and the supply reset about $13 more. On ComEd, delivery does not have a seasonal rate, and the October supply price had not been posted as of September 23, so the change depends on that number. Last year ComEd's price moved from 10.027¢ to 9.689¢, a small step. Either way, usage falls in October too, and that is usually the biggest reason the bill shrinks.

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What changed June 1, what reset October 1, the ICC delivery increases that didn't reset, and your all-in cost per kWh.Illinois Electricity Rates Have Nearly Doubled Since 2021 — Here's What That Means for Your BillIllinois electricity rates have surged 90%+ since 2021. Here's what's driving the increases, what to expect next, and how to protect your household.Illinois Solar Incentives 2026: 7 Programs Worth $12,000-$18,000+Illinois solar incentives 2026: Illinois Shines RECs, the new $20/REC customer-owned adder, $300/kW DG rebate, battery rebate, net metering, and property tax exemption — worth $12,000-$18,000+ on an owned system. Plus no-cost Solar for All for income-eligible households.Solar Battery Backup in Illinois — What It Actually Powers and Whether It's Worth ItWhat does a solar battery actually run during an outage? How much does it cost with the $300/kWh rebate? Here's the honest breakdown for Illinois homeowners.
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