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Demand Response

Demand response: a win for you, the environment, and the grid

Demand response programs are opportunities for consumers to take an active role in lowering their electric bills, reducing stress on the electric grid, and cutting pollution. Sounds like a good deal. But what are “demand response” programs? At their core, all demand response programs incentivize consumers to shift their electricity…...

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Help the environment and cut your costs with ComEd’s Time-of-Day pricing program

With the introduction of smart meters across Illinois, consumers have more options when it comes to how they use and pay for electricity. ComEd’s new Time-of-Day Pricing Program—which charges different electric rates during different periods of the day—is one such option. So how does the Time-of-Day program work? Most customers…...

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Did real-time pricing help electricity customers save in 2018?

by Cate York, Sustainable Communities Liaison at CUB Working as an outreach staffer for CUB takes me all over the state to talk to folks about how to save money on their utility bills. One of my favorite cost-saving measures to talk about is real-time pricing.  As any dedicated reader…...

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Tips to make the most of ComEd’s Hourly Pricing

With ComEd’s Hourly Pricing, a program that charges the hourly market rate for electricity instead of the standard fixed rate, you could see average savings of 15 percent on the supply portion of your electric bill by shifting your energy-usage to hours when power prices drop (like nights and weekends).…...

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Consumer saves almost $600 with Hourly Pricing

ComEd’s Hourly Pricing program is a great way to save money, not to mention practice wise energy use. One consumer, Jim, recently attended a CUB utility-bill clinic to tell us how Hourly Pricing has saved him hundreds of dollars! Hourly Pricing allows customers to pay the hourly market rate for…...

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Urge Governor Rauner to veto House Bill 4508

The Illinois House and Senate have passed a bill that could raise water rates for many Illinois consumers. House Bill 4508 renews old legislation that allows Illinois American Water and Aqua Illinois–the big corporations pushing the bill–to raise existing customers’ rates in order to bankroll the purchase of municipal water…...

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Supreme Court decision big win for all electricity customers

On Monday regulators and consumer advocates won a major victory against big power generators at the U.S. Supreme Court—and that’s good news for anyone who pays a power bill. In simple terms, the case (FERC v. Electric Power Supply Assocaition) was an argument over whether the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission…...

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Breaking: ‘Slam dunk’ for electric customers at the Supreme Court

It’s never easy taking on big energy companies, but then there are days like this. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling in support of an important efficiency program called Demand Response. Read CUB’s statement. Demand Response is any program in which power grid operators pay electricity users to…...

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A showdown with big power generators at the U.S. Supreme Court

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments in a case that promises to have a major impact on future energy costs in the United States. The Supreme Court is reviewing a 2014 Appellate Court decision that stripped the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission (FERC) of the authority to promote and regulate “demand-response” programs in the energy market. What…...

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CUB files brief before U.S. Supreme Court

Today, CUB took the fight for money-saving energy efficiency programs all the way to the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court. Our legal team filed a brief this morning in a Supreme Court case that could have a significant impact on your utility bills. The case revolves around something called “Demand Response” (DR)– when power…...

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