Commonwealth Edison customers will pay an additional $4.50 a month, after the Illinois Commerce Commission approved a delivery charge increase of roughly $270 million on Wednesday.
The increase will largely pay for the modernization of the electricity infrastructure, replacing a century-old network of transmission lines with a "smart grid."
A smart grid will enable ComEd to know when a power outage occurs. Under the existing system, the utility only learns about an outage when a customer calls.
It also would provide customers with real-time data about their electricity usage, making it easier to be more energy efficient.
-- Josh Boak, Chicago Tribune
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