Electricity Procurement for Serving Retail Load in Illinois

Illinois Citizens Utility Board
City of Chicago
Cook County State's Attorney's Office
Completed August 2006

Synapse advised clients in Illinois on alternatives for procuring power to serve default customers after the “transition period” provided for in the State’s restructuring law.  Synapse presented testimony addressing a proposal by Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) to use a clearing price auction to procure wholesale power for default customers.

We evaluated the Company's proposal, examining issues of market power in the wholesale electricity markets, market power in retail provision of electricity, acquisition of generation supply, and the management of a resource portfolio to provide bundled generation service to residential and small commercial customers. 

We found that, while offering hypothetical benefits to customers, overall the proposal was too narrowly tailored, failed to provide necessary consumer protections, and cut off Commission review of a broad range of options that should be considered as Illinois emerges from the transition period. 

Additionally, Synapse proposed alternatives for how the proposed auction process could be improved, should the Commission decide to authorize a similar mechanism to that proposed by ComEd. Testimony was presented before the Illinois Commerce Commission by witnesses Fagan and Steinhurst in docket 05-0159. Project completed in August 2006.