Commercial Energy in Aurora, IL: Electricity & Gas

Utility and supplier-choice checkpoint

The utilities below are local service context, not an address-level eligibility guarantee. Confirm the current bill, service address, account holder, and rate class before requesting a change.

Electricity: Eligible ComEd-served business accounts can compare retail electric supply while ComEd continues delivery. Use the ICC’s electric-choice explanation and the account’s ComEd tariff and rate class. Keep supply, delivery demand, and capacity inputs separate.

Natural gas: Nicor lists this community in its service territory. For a Nicor business account, Customer Select is the relevant supplier-choice program. Check current eligibility, supplier fees, billing arrangements, and applicable utility charges and credits.

Supplier selection affects the supply arrangement. It does not replace the delivery utility or its infrastructure and emergency responsibilities. A change in supplier does not guarantee a lower total bill.

Use the service account, not the mailing address

An Aurora mailing address is a starting point for a review, not proof of a particular meter’s tariff. A new tenant should match the service address, suite, meter identifier, and utility account holder before accepting a supplier enrollment. The former operator’s price or usage is useful background only when the account and operating pattern are comparable.

If a site is moving from office use to food preparation, fabrication, or longer operating hours, ask for a forecast as well as the historical bills. Document the expected electric and gas changes separately. A supplier can then explain how a material volume change is treated rather than silently assuming last year repeats.

Account review steps

1. Reconcile the suite and meter with the landlord’s handover schedule.
2. Flag a change of use before requesting an annual usage estimate.
3. Compare contract starts with the confirmed utility service activation.

Worked Energy Desk example

Suppose two complete electric proposals cover 132,000 kWh a year over the same term. Offer A includes all modeled variable supply components at 8¢/kWh plus $20 per month. Offer B includes the same components at 8.4¢/kWh with no monthly fee. The offer comparison calculates annual supply costs of $10,800 and $11,088, a difference of $288.

Set an included component to zero only when the proposal confirms it is included or inapplicable; leave an unresolved component blank. Delivery and taxes still need separate treatment. For gas, select the gas mode and use consistent therm-based rates, including the bill’s heat-content factor when converting Ccf. These are illustrative inputs, not local utility rates, supplier quotes, or promised savings.

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 Customer Select. 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 Customer Select 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.