Commercial Energy in Addison, IL: Electricity & Gas

Addison is a DuPage County community with a substantial manufacturing and industrial-park base. Metal fabrication, plastics, printing, food and packaging work, and the warehousing that supports them all sit alongside the offices and service businesses that keep a suburban economy running. Many of those facilities are energy-intensive, which makes commercial energy a genuine operating cost rather than a rounding error — and the accounts reward careful procurement and demand analysis.

Utilities in Addison

• Electricity: ComEd is the delivery utility, with commercial supplier choice available. See the ComEd commercial guide.
• Natural gas: Nicor Gas is the delivery utility, with commercial supplier choice through Choices for You. See the Nicor Gas commercial guide.

Confirm both utilities from a recent bill. The utility continues delivery and emergency service when a business chooses a supplier.

Supply vs delivery: how the bill splits

Every commercial energy bill in Addison has two parts, and understanding the split is the key to procurement. Delivery is what ComEd charges to move electricity over its wires — and what Nicor charges to move gas through its pipes — plus metering, billing, and restoring service after an outage or leak. Delivery is regulated by the Illinois Commerce Commission and does not change based on who supplies the commodity. Supply is the cost of the energy itself, and that is the portion an eligible business can shop.

In ComEd territory, an eligible commercial account can buy its electricity supply from a licensed Alternative Retail Electric Supplier (ARES) under a fixed or indexed contract, or stay on ComEd's default utility supply, which resets periodically. On the gas side, Nicor's Choices for You program lets a commercial account move its gas supply to a certified alternative supplier while Nicor keeps delivering the gas and handling emergencies. Choosing a supplier never changes who responds to a downed line or a gas leak — that stays with ComEd and Nicor. A supplier contract affects only the supply line on the bill.

What shapes energy costs here

• Manufacturing accounts are demand- and capacity-sensitive — see manufacturing energy procurement.
• Warehousing and distribution accounts are driven by lighting/HVAC energy plus equipment demand — see warehouse energy procurement.
• ComEd/PJM capacity applies, so peak behavior feeds the capacity tag and future supply cost.

For a demand-billed account, the meter records not only how much energy is used (kWh) but the highest rate of use in the month (kW). That peak drives demand charges, and in the ComEd/PJM market an account's peak behavior across a handful of high-demand summer hours sets a capacity tag (PLC) that follows the account into the next delivery year and into its supply cost. This is why two Addison facilities with similar total usage can carry very different bills: the one with sharper, spikier peaks pays more. It is also why a PJM capacity auction clearing price is a wholesale figure, not a rate you can read off a bill. Gas costs, by contrast, are more seasonal — heating and process load concentrate in winter — so the shape of a gas contract matters as much as the headline price.

Getting started

Provide 12 months of electric and gas bills for an Addison facility (interval data helps for high-demand accounts), and the account can be reviewed and priced on matched terms through the procurement process. Gather the utility account numbers, the rate class shown on each bill, and any current supplier contract's end date so timing lines up with the renewal. Operators with more than one building can group accounts and align renewal dates through multi-location procurement. No savings figure is promised in advance.