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PUC Annual Competition Report Submitted to Legislature
On July 28, 2026 the ICC Annual ORMD Legislative Report prepared by the Office of Retail Market Development’s (ORMD). This annual report is submitted in compliance with Section 20-110 of the “Retail Electric Competition Act of 2006” [220 ILCS 5/20-110]. Section 20-110 requires the Director of the Office of Retail Market Development to annually report specific accomplishments in promoting retail electric competition.
Excerpts from the Executive Summary:
Market Participation – “Statewide, the number of ARES certified by the ICC to serve retail customers increased last year. Similarly, the amount of electricity supplied by ARES also increased by 11.7% from 2025 to 2026. Further, the number of customers being served by ARES also slightly increased. Table 1 summarizes the number of monthly ARES customers and their monthly usage by utility territory and customer class.”
Market Competitiveness – “Changes in the electric supply market from 2023-2025 resulted in an overall decrease in competitiveness within the marketplace. This past year saw an increase in competition, however, not enough to shift the designations. A decrease in competition occurred in the residential customer category within the ComEd territory and was significant enough to shift the designation from moderate concentration to high concentration. Table 3 summarizes the market competitiveness in each utility territory, broken out by non-residential and residential HHI values.”
Consumer Offers and Spending – “On average, residential ARES customers in the ComEd territory paid around $8.23 million more per month during the past twelve months when compared to the ComEd Price-to-Compare (PTC) 6 and $6.46 million more per month during the last twelve months when compared to the ComEd PTC including the Purchased Electricity Adjustment (PEA). 7 In terms of cents per kWh, residential ARES customers in the ComEd territory paid about 1.82 cents/kWh more when compared to the ComEd PTC only, and about 1.28 cents/kWh more when including the PEA. On average, residential ARES customers in the Ameren territory paid around $8.48 million more per month during the last twelve months when compared to the Ameren PTC and $10.73 million more per month during the last twelve months when compared to the Ameren PTC including the PEA. In terms of cents per kWh, residential ARES customers in the Ameren territory paid about 2.43 cents/kWh more when compared to the Ameren PTC and about 3.05 cents/kWh more when including the PEA.”
See full report for full analysis and charts and tables.
