ComEd Hourly Pricing vs. a Fixed Rate: When Each Wins for a Small Business

Small businesses in ComEd territory have an unusual supply option available to them: ComEd Hourly Pricing, a real-time program in which the supply portion of the bill is priced against the hourly wholesale market instead of a flat rate. The alternative is a conventional fixed supply rate, whether from ComEd's default service or a competitive supplier. Neither is universally better. This guide explains how each works, the factors that determine fit, and — most importantly — how to evaluate your own suitability using interval data rather than guesswork or predicted prices.

How a fixed rate works

Under a fixed supply arrangement, you pay a set price per unit of energy for the term, regardless of what the wholesale market does hour to hour. This is the familiar model for most commercial electricity buyers, whether they stay on utility default supply or sign with a competitive supplier.

The defining trait of a fixed rate is certainty. Your supply price does not swing with market conditions, which makes budgeting straightforward and insulates you from price spikes during extreme weather or grid stress. The trade-off is that you also do not benefit when wholesale prices are low — you pay the fixed price either way. A fixed rate is, in effect, buying insurance against volatility. For how fixed structures compare to floating ones generally, see fixed vs. index commercial electricity.

How ComEd Hourly Pricing works

ComEd Hourly Pricing is a real, optional program; its current details and enrollment terms are published at hourlypricing.comed.com. Under it, the supply portion of your electricity is priced against the hourly wholesale market. Instead of one flat number, the price you pay varies by hour, reflecting what electricity costs on the market in that hour.

The consequence is that your bill depends on two things at once: the market's hourly prices and when your business consumes electricity. If much of your usage falls in lower-price hours, a real-time program interacts with the market differently than if your usage concentrates in typically high-price periods. It also means bills vary month to month, and that some hours — during heat waves, cold snaps, or grid stress — can carry markedly higher prices than a flat rate would. This is a form of index or time-varying pricing, and it shares the general risk profile discussed in time-of-use pricing for commercial customers in Illinois.

Hourly Pricing affects only the supply portion of your cost. Delivery charges, demand charges where they apply, and outage response are unchanged — ComEd remains your delivery utility regardless of which supply option you choose.

The factors that determine fit

Whether a real-time program or a fixed rate suits your business comes down to a few honest questions:

• Can your load actually shift? The core value of a real-time program is the ability to move consumption away from high-price hours. A business that can genuinely shift discretionary usage — running certain equipment off-peak, pre-cooling, staging processes — has something to work with. A load that runs the same regardless of price captures little of the upside while keeping all of the exposure.
• What does your load shape look like? If your usage naturally concentrates in typically lower-price hours, your pattern interacts more favorably with hourly pricing. If your demand peaks during typically high-price periods, a real-time program exposes exactly the wrong hours.
• How much bill variability can you tolerate? Real-time pricing means month-to-month swings and the possibility of expensive hours during extreme conditions. A business that needs predictable budgeting may find that stress not worth it, regardless of any potential upside. The guide on time-of-use pricing for Illinois businesses covers this exposure directly.
• Do you have the attention to manage it? Getting value from a real-time program generally requires paying attention to prices and acting on them. A fixed rate requires none of that ongoing engagement.

In broad terms: flexible, price-responsive loads that can tolerate variability are the plausible candidates for Hourly Pricing, while businesses that prize certainty, cannot shift usage, or peak during high-price hours are usually better served by a fixed rate.

How to evaluate suitability with interval data

The responsible way to assess this decision is with your own interval data — the record of how much electricity your business used in each interval, hour by hour. Your load shape is the single most important input, and it is specific to your operation.

A sound evaluation looks like this:

1. Request your interval data. ComEd can provide interval usage for your account; see how to request and use demand interval data for the mechanics. Choosing a platform to work with it is covered in choosing interval data platforms.
2. Examine when your usage actually happens. Identify whether your consumption concentrates in typically higher-price or lower-price hours, and how much of it is discretionary versus fixed.
3. Look across a full range of seasons. A single month is misleading. Summer and winter conditions produce very different price patterns, and your load shape may differ seasonally too. Evaluate a full annual cycle so extreme periods are represented.
4. Do not rely on predicted prices. No one can reliably forecast hourly prices, and any analysis built on a predicted price path is only as good as a guess that cannot be verified. The honest approach studies your load shape and your tolerance for variability, and treats future prices as inherently uncertain.
5. Judge against a fixed alternative and the price-to-compare. The relevant question is whether your load shape and flexibility make a real-time program a sensible fit for you, weighed against the certainty a fixed rate provides.

This analysis will not tell you what you will pay — nothing can, because future prices are unknown. What it can tell you is whether your business has the load flexibility and risk tolerance that a real-time program rewards, or whether the certainty of a fixed rate is the better match.

The bottom line

A fixed rate buys certainty and protection from high-price hours at the cost of any upside from low-price ones. ComEd Hourly Pricing offers exposure to hourly market prices, which can suit a business with flexible, price-responsive load and tolerance for variable bills — and can penalize one without those traits. The decision should rest on your own interval data and an honest read of your risk tolerance, not on predicted prices or a promise of savings. Study your load shape across a full year, confirm program details at the ComEd source, and choose the structure that matches how your business actually runs.

Sources

• ComEd Hourly Pricing
• ComEd — Rates and Pricing
• Illinois Commerce Commission — Plug In Illinois: Electric Choice Basics

Evaluating these options clarifies fit for your load; it does not promise any particular rate or savings.