Commercial Energy in Aurora, IL: Electricity & Gas

Aurora is Illinois' second-largest city and a significant commercial and industrial center in the Fox Valley — manufacturing, distribution, a growing data-center corridor, and a large office and retail base. A useful point of clarity for businesses: Aurora is a ComEd community, not a municipal electric utility. That distinction matters, because a handful of Illinois cities (Naperville and Springfield among them) run municipal electric systems where a supplier switch is not available. Aurora is not one of them — its eligible commercial accounts can shop electricity supply like the rest of ComEd territory.

Utilities in Aurora

• Electricity: ComEd is the delivery utility (Aurora is not municipal), 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.

Aurora spans Kane, DuPage, Will, and Kendall counties, but the electric and gas utilities are consistent citywide. Confirm from a recent bill for any specific address.

Supply vs delivery: how choice works here

A commercial energy bill in Aurora divides into delivery and supply. Delivery covers moving electricity over ComEd's wires and gas through Nicor's pipes, plus metering, billing, and emergency response; it is regulated by the Illinois Commerce Commission and does not change with the supplier. Supply is the commodity, and that is the part an eligible business can put out to bid.

On the electric side, an eligible commercial account can contract supply with a licensed Alternative Retail Electric Supplier (ARES) or stay on ComEd's default utility supply. Nicor's Choices for You program offers the same option for gas through certified suppliers, with Nicor continuing to deliver the gas and respond to leaks. Larger accounts that can shift or shed load may also weigh usage-sensitive options such as ComEd's Hourly Pricing program against a fixed-price supply contract. Whichever route an account takes, reliability is unchanged — ComEd and Nicor still own the infrastructure and handle outages and emergencies.

What shapes energy costs here

• Manufacturing and warehousing accounts are demand- and capacity-sensitive — see manufacturing and warehouse procurement.
• Data centers carry high, steady load where load factor and demand strategy matter.
• Office and retail accounts benefit from supply comparison and bill review.

For energy-intensive Aurora accounts, the meter records both total energy (kWh) and the peak rate of use (kW). That peak drives demand charges, and in the ComEd/PJM market it also sets a capacity tag (PLC) based on behavior during a few high-demand summer hours — a tag that carries into the next delivery year and into supply cost. Data centers illustrate the flip side: their load is high but very steady, giving a strong load factor that changes the economics compared with a spiky manufacturing peak. A PJM capacity auction clearing price, worth noting, is a wholesale market figure, not a rate that appears on a bill. Gas load is more seasonal, weighted toward winter heating and any process use, so contract term and shape deserve attention alongside price.

Getting started

Provide 12 months of electric and gas bills for an Aurora facility (interval data helps for high-demand accounts), and the account can be reviewed and priced on matched terms through the procurement process. Have the utility account numbers, the rate class on each bill, and any current supplier contract's end date on hand so timing aligns with the renewal. Multi-building operators can group accounts through multi-location procurement.

On timing, supply is generally shopped in a window ahead of the current term's expiration, which allows a real comparison rather than a rushed decision or an unintended rollover. An account on ComEd or Nicor default supply has no fixed term to wait out and can be reviewed at any point. For a large Aurora facility, it is also worth confirming whether the account's peak profile suits a fixed-price contract or a more usage-sensitive structure before committing. No savings figure is promised in advance.