Deregulation and Competition in Illinois
The Illinois Electric Service Customer Choice and Rate Relief Law ("Customer Choice Act"), enacted in December of 1997, was landmark legislation that restructured the electricity industry in the state of Illinois.
Illinois was among several states in the nation that joined the federal government in a regulatory paradigm for electric utilities, allowing a shift from the traditional cost-of-service regulation to a greater reliance on market forces to discipline the price of power supplies. The General Assembly embraced the restructuring model as a more economically efficient model. The Customer Choice Act was designed to provide greater choice and additional value through innovative products and services tailored to the individual customer, while at the same time maintaining or enhancing system reliability.
The Customer Choice Act required Illinois electric utilities to unbundle the elements of electricity service, creating a competitive generation market for energy supply service, while the delivery of the energy — transmission and distribution — remained regulated. This restructuring allows certified Alternative Retail Electric Suppliers (ARES) to purchase wholesale-market power and sell to business and residential customers in Illinois. When you switch your electric supply service, the ARES arranges for delivery of power to ComEd’s distribution facilities on behalf of your utility account. ComEd, in turn, delivers that power as the local distributor in charge of the physical delivery of power — the poles, wires and transformers.
Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, MC Squared Energy Services (mc2) is licensed and certificated by the Illinois Commerce Commission as an ARES, to serve commercial, industrial and residential customers with electricity supply services in the ComEd service territory. mc2 serves thousands of customers who want to reduce their cost of power, as well as their exposure to the potential volatility of pricing in the electric market. mc2 products enable customers to capitalize on advantageous power-purchasing strategies to efficiently manage electricity supply costs. In the unlikely event that mc2 were to fail to deliver power, ComEd would not interrupt the supply of power to it's customers' meters.
