ComEd reports Future Energy Jobs Act bringing clean energy benefits, savings to customers

The benefits are outweighing any costs of the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA), ComEd reported to the Illinois Commerce Commission last week, saving residential customers an average monthly savings of more than $1.30 between 2017 and 2020.

FEJA is a state-enacted law passed in 2016. Its goal is to advance renewable energy and increase savings through new energy efficiency options for less than the caps created by the legislation itself. While residential customers have seen the most benefit, ComEd reported that its commercial customers’ net costs and benefits remain below the legislated cost cap of 0.12 cents per kilowatt. Costs and benefits for nonresidential customers exempt from energy efficiency programs remain below the legislated cost cap of 0.078 cents per kilowatt.

“FEJA is making good on its promise to help our customers and communities gain access to clean and more efficient energy, and the benefits continue to outweigh the costs,” Joe Dominguez, ComEd CEO, said. “Since the state passed FEJA, energy efficiency investments have saved customers almost as much energy as they saved in the 10 years before FEJA at about half the cost.”

A total of 10,250 ComEd residential customers connected energy resources like private solar to the grid, while commercial, industrial, and community supply projects brought the total to more than 10,500 interconnections. All told, that represents 183 MW of distributed generation, bolstered further by 20 community solar projects added last year. Another 55 such projects are construction.

Under FEJA, Illinois utilities must treat energy efficiency like other utility investments, paying them off over time. This allows utilities like ComEd to increase customer rebates and invest in other areas to advance energy efficiency goals while reducing bill impacts. The law will be in effect through 2031.

From 2019 to 2020 alone, the distributed generation rebate program for commercial and industrial customers grew from $8 million to $21 million. At the same time, FEJA has allowed new opportunities for underrepresented populations, opening apprenticeships, training programs, and jobs to more people.