DCS

Energy savings in Illinois?

Illinois energy advisory and savings.

ComEd and Ameren operating under a deregulated supply market, with PJM and MISO capacity stacking and a strong CEJA program environment.

Territory profile

State
IL
Market
Deregulated supply market
Utilities tracked
6
Programs tracked
6

Illinois commercial energy strategy operates across two organized markets (PJM in ComEd territory, MISO in Ameren territory) with a deregulated supply market on both sides. ComEd and Ameren Illinois deliver the wires service under separate tariff books; commercial supply is procured from retail electric suppliers (RES) under contract structures that should match the load profile, not the salesperson's quota. Peoples Gas, North Shore Gas, and Nicor Gas each carry their own commercial gas tariff structure. The Illinois Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) restructured the renewable energy procurement environment and created equity-area project pathways with enhanced REC values for qualifying installations. ComEd and Ameren each run statutory energy efficiency portfolios (Stakeholder Advisory Group oversight) with prescriptive and custom rebates that stack cleanly with PJM and MISO demand response capacity payments. Developments CS works across ComEd and Ameren territory with attention to the supply side, the delivery side, and the program-funded efficiency layer.

Major utilities we work with

Utilities we track in Illinois

Each utility carries its own tariff book, demand structure, and program environment. The engagement maps every account against every applicable schedule.

  • Commonwealth Edison (ComEd)

    electric

    Largest electric utility in Illinois, serving the Chicago metro and Northern Illinois (PJM territory). Commercial tariff schedules Rate 6 (small) and Rate 7 (large) drive the delivery side; supply is procured separately.

  • Ameren Illinois

    combined

    Electric and gas service across Central and Southern Illinois (MISO territory on the electric side). Commercial rates DS-2, DS-3, DS-4 carry distinct demand structures.

  • Peoples Gas

    gas

    Natural gas distribution in the City of Chicago. Commercial rates Rate 4 (small) and Rate 9 (medium and large) set the commercial structure.

  • North Shore Gas

    gas

    Natural gas distribution in suburban Chicago north and northwest. Same parent as Peoples Gas but operates under its own rate schedule.

  • Nicor Gas

    gas

    Largest natural gas distribution utility in Illinois outside Chicago. Commercial rates 4, 5, and 74 (transportation) set the structure.

  • MidAmerican Energy

    combined

    Electric and gas service in parts of Northwest and Western Illinois (Quad Cities, Galesburg). Operates across the MISO/PJM seam.

Programs we capture

Key Illinois programs the engagement stacks into

State and utility programs that stack with the underlying tariff and procurement work to compound the annualized recovery.

  • Rebate

    Illinois Energy Efficiency Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAG) programs

    Statutory ComEd and Ameren commercial energy efficiency portfolios funded through customer ratepayer assessments. Prescriptive and custom rebates on lighting, HVAC, controls, refrigeration, and engineered measures.

  • Rebate

    ComEd Energy Efficiency Program (Smart Ideas for Your Business)

    ComEd's commercial efficiency program offering prescriptive measures, custom incentives, and retrocommissioning funding. Rebates frequently cover 25 to 50 percent of project cost.

  • Tax credit

    Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) competitive procurements

    Illinois 2021 climate law restructuring renewable energy procurement and creating equity-focused project pathways. Commercial solar and storage projects in qualifying equity areas earn enhanced REC values.

  • Rebate

    Illinois Solar for All

    Nonprofit and public-sector solar program with enhanced REC pricing for qualifying projects. Schools, municipalities, and nonprofits in qualifying communities access materially better project economics.

  • Demand response

    PJM Emergency Load Response Program (Capacity)

    PJM capacity market participation through aggregator-administered programs. ComEd-territory commercial sites with at least 100 kW of dispatchable load qualify.

  • Demand response

    MISO Demand Response programs

    Ameren-territory equivalent. MISO Load Modifying Resource (LMR) and Demand Response Resource (DRR) tracks for commercial load reduction commitment.

What an engagement looks like

How a Illinois engagement runs

An Illinois engagement starts with the same TDU/REP split as Texas, structured differently. ComEd and Ameren deliver the wires service; retail electric suppliers (RES) compete on supply. The first deliverable is a supply contract review against the actual load profile across all locations in scope, matching the right RES product (fixed, indexed, block-and-index, heat-rate, or wholesale-style aggregation) to each meter.

On the delivery side, ComEd Rate 6 (small) versus Rate 7 (large) and Ameren DS-2/DS-3/DS-4 schedule election are run against twelve months of interval data per meter. Demand response enrollment in PJM capacity market on the ComEd side (via aggregator) or MISO LMR/DRR on the Ameren side produces monthly capacity payments for any account with at least 100 kW of dispatchable load.

Illinois's Energy Efficiency Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAG) sets program portfolios under statute. ComEd Smart Ideas for Your Business and Ameren's equivalent commercial program fund prescriptive measures, custom projects, and retrocommissioning at coverage levels frequently in the 25 to 50 percent range of project cost. Engagement deliverables typically include a stacked-program memo showing which combination of supply restructuring, delivery-side reclassification, demand response, and efficiency rebates produces the highest annualized recovery for the portfolio.

Sample finding patterns

What the pipeline catches in Illinois

Plausible examples drawn from the pattern types most commonly caught in Illinois. Specific clients are not named; utilities, tariff codes, and recovery ranges are. Recovery ranges are stated as ranges (typically the 25th to 75th percentile of the relevant cohort), never as point estimates.

  • Supply contract structure

    Retail electric supplier (deregulated supply on ComEd)

    A Chicago retail chain with 18 locations was on a single fixed-rate supply contract through one retail electric supplier (RES). The locations carried meaningfully different load profiles. Restructuring the procurement to match different load types to different products (block-and-index on the cold storage locations, fixed-rate on the offices, indexed on the high-flex distribution center) cut commodity cost without changing the ComEd delivery side of the bill.

  • Tariff election

    ComEd · Rate 6 vs Rate 7

    A Northern Illinois light industrial facility on ComEd Rate 6 (small load delivery, watt-hour metered) had grown into a demand-metered profile that fit Rate 7 (large load delivery, demand-billed). The reclassification produced a structural saving on the delivery side; the supply side was unaffected.

  • PJM Capacity demand response enrollment

    ComEd and PJM

    A Chicago-area cold storage operator with 1.2 MW of dispatchable refrigeration load had never enrolled in PJM capacity market through any aggregator. Enrollment produced monthly capacity payments running roughly $4 to $8 per kW-month depending on the delivery year auction clearing price. Dispatch events averaged five per year; refrigeration thermal mass absorbed curtailment without product loss.

  • Retrocommissioning incentive recovery

    ComEd Energy Efficiency

    A large commercial office in Chicago had completed a retrocommissioning project two years prior without filing for the ComEd retrocommissioning incentive. The program permits late application within a defined window. Documentation went in; the incentive recovered roughly $0.08 per kWh of documented savings.

Related engagement archetypes

How this looks as a complete engagement

Engagement archetypes describe the pattern of work across a cohort of engagements sharing the same vertical, tariff exposure, and recovery shape.

Where to next

The disciplines that drive the work in Illinois

The Illinois engagement runs across all our standard service lines. Tariff and rate audits and billing forensics produce the immediate-cycle bill corrections; demand management and supply procurement cut the structural cost base; incentives and grants stack utility and state program funding into capital projects; tax and fee recovery surfaces back-credit on prior overpayments where qualifying use applies.

Schedule a 30-minute call about your Illinois portfolio.

Fifteen minutes with one of your Illinois bills is usually enough for us to see whether there is meaningful savings on the table.

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