2 utilities compared · 6 plans · 1,437 ZIP codes
Electricity rates in Illinois
Not a state average. The same household, priced hour by hour for a year on the default plan at each utility we cover here — so the differences below are differences in the tariffs, not in how much anyone used.
What a year of electricity costs in Illinois
| Household | Uses | Median, per year | Cheapest utility | Dearest utility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apartment One or two people, no central air, no electric heat | 4,866 kWh | $914 | $596 | $1,232 |
| Family home Three or four people with central air conditioning | 9,453 kWh | $1,648 | $1,084 | $2,212 |
| Home with an EV Same house, plus an electric car charging overnight | 13,103 kWh | $2,208 | $1,450 | $2,966 |
Median and range across the 2 utilities, each on the plan a household lands on by default. Estimates for comparing utilities against each other, not a prediction of any one bill; they exclude taxes, local surcharges and demand charges.
How much does where you live inside Illinois matter?
Run the same three-bedroom house with central air through the default residential plan at each of the 2 utilities we cover in Illinois, and the yearly bill lands between $1,084 at MidAmerican Energy and $2,212 at Ameren Illinois; the median is $1,648. That is a 2.0× gap for identical electricity, decided by where in Illinois the house stands and nothing else. No plan choice at a single utility closes a gap that size — but inside each one there is usually still money on the table.
The utility is fixed by your address; the plan is not. At Ameren Illinois, the cheapest and dearest of its 2 comparable plans are $2,876 a year apart for the same house — more than the gap between Illinois's cheapest and dearest utilities. Put differently, the plan you pick at your own utility is worth more than the accident of which utility you have.
1 of the 2 utilities files at least one plan priced by the hour (2 plans in all). If yours is one of them, shifting when you use power is worth real money; if not, only the total matters and the plan list is short.
Illinois has retail choice: you can buy the supply half of your bill from a competing supplier while the utility still delivers it. The figures on this page price the utility's own default supply, which is what you pay if you never shopped. A third-party offer replaces only that part — the delivery charges and the fixed charge stay with the utility whatever you sign.
Utility by utility
Cheapest first, for the family home. The last two columns are where the money is: how far the default plan sits from the cheapest one the same utility files.
| Utility | Plans | Default plan, a year | Cheapest plan | By the hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MidAmerican Energy RATE RS - RESIDENTIAL SERVICE | 4 | $1,084 | $984 | 2 plans |
| Ameren Illinois DS-1 Residential Zone 2 | 2 | $2,212 | none cheaper | — |
Before you compare anything
- Delivery vs. supply on your electric bill
Half your bill is a service you cannot shop for. Knowing which half matters.
- How to compare electricity plans without getting it wrong
Six things that break a comparison, and the order to check them in.
- Electricity rates by state: what the filed tariffs actually say
Median rates from the tariffs themselves, not a state-level average.