Dive Summary:
- On Wednesday, the Illinois House of Representative voted 71-44 to override Governor Quinn's veto of the ComEd rate hike bill one day after the Illinois Senate did the same.
- ComEd will use the $2.6 billion rate hike to finance its 10-year grid modernization project.
- In a press release, ComEd indicated that, with the passage of the bill into law, it would begin its smart meter installation project in the fourth quarter of 2013.
From the article:
But when it came time for the 2011 law to be implemented, ComEd and the Illinois Commerce Commission disagreed. ComEd appealed 12 technical matters worth about $100 million a year. The dispute continues in court.
The legislation seeks to address three of those issues: whether to treat pensions as an asset or a liability; whether returns should be based on equipment in the ground at year-end or the average amount of equipment in the ground throughout the year; and the interest rate to be used for bringing into line the utility's actual versus hypothetical costs.