Latest Post | Last 10 Posts | Archives
Previous Post: House Black Caucus Chair endorses Rep. Yingling for Senate over contrast with Dem opponent’s voting record
Next Post: Arroyo wants probation, challenges forfeiture amount
Posted in:
* I’m all for infrastructure upgrades, and tend to err on dismissing cost critics because we’ve all seen what can happen when infrastructure is allowed to decay. But companies should undoubtedly do much better…
The same state regulatory agency that granted Nicor Gas permission to bury gas deep underground in rural Livingston county decades ago also approved the company’s request for a record $240 million rate hike, despite evidence of an ongoing methane leak that has persisted for several years.
“Commissioners don’t usually say no to rate hikes,” former Illinois Commerce Commission administrative law judge John Albers explained. “I have seen the ICC be more assertive in its regulatory authority in prior years.”
The four members of the Illinois Commerce Commission who voted to approve the utility company’s third rate hike in four years — three of them appointed by Governor J.B. Pritzker — shrugged off concerns about “extraordinary spending” raised by the Attorney General’s office. In state records filed with the ICC, the Attorney General’s office said Nicor “failed to explain” why the company “regularly and substantially [exceeded] its budget” with $50.6 million in “cost over-runs” on costly projects “at ratepayer expense.”
Nicor argued it “can face unexpected physical and natural conditions at any and every phase of a project,” and “that some individual projects will incur costs higher or lower than estimated based on the presence or absence of various field conditions.”
After a Target 3 investigation revealed an ongoing methane leak at Nicor’s largest gas storage field in rural Ancona, Nicor spokeswoman Jennifer Golz outlined a number of recent infrastructure upgrades at the company’s oldest gas storage site in Illinois.
* From Crain’s a few weeks ago…
Commonwealth Edison is budgeting substantially more than the historically high, capital spending levels it laid out last year, now that parent Exelon is dividing its regulated utilities, like ComEd, from unregulated power plants, like Exelon’s nuclear stations in Illinois.
In an extensive investor presentation today, ComEd boosted its previous capital spending outlook from 2022 until 2024 by $300 million, to $7.6 billion from $7.3 billion. In 2024, the year after the utility’s controversial formula rate-making authority expires, ComEd’s capital spending budget is 10% higher than what it forecasted last February. […]
The average annual capital spending budget for ComEd from 2022 through 2025 is $2.56 billion. That’s 20% higher than the average $2.13 billion ComEd spend each year from 2017 until 2021, according to Securities & Exchange Commission filings.
It’s also well above the $2.38 billion average for the four highest-spending years during the smart-grid project, in which ComEd installed smart meters in every home and business and invested heavily in making the grid more reliable.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jan 31, 22 @ 10:32 am
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
Previous Post: House Black Caucus Chair endorses Rep. Yingling for Senate over contrast with Dem opponent’s voting record
Next Post: Arroyo wants probation, challenges forfeiture amount
WordPress Mobile Edition available at alexking.org.
powered by WordPress.
I’m sure Mr. Carrigan is very concerned about the cost overruns on labor work sites.
Comment by Sensitive Nancy Monday, Jan 31, 22 @ 10:54 am
Do they have a comparison vs a rural electric coop? How about vs other states. How much overhead and executive salaries are they allowing?
Comment by Publius Monday, Jan 31, 22 @ 11:11 am
The Florida Light and Power scandal down in Florida is something to watch. I guess Illinois public utilities are not the only corrupt public utilities.
Comment by Three Dimensional Checkers Monday, Jan 31, 22 @ 11:13 am
Gold plating everything to get that guaranteed rate of return. Regulators need to keep them honest. We’ll see.
Comment by illinoyed Monday, Jan 31, 22 @ 11:22 am
I’m not generally a ComED defender, but it’s 4% increase in capital costs over the next few years doesn’t seem particularly egregious, given the current labor and material shortages and inflation in general.
Comment by duck duck goose Monday, Jan 31, 22 @ 11:39 am
Horror stories galore over the building of Prarie State unit 1.
Comment by Blue Dog Monday, Jan 31, 22 @ 12:17 pm
Carrigan being concerned about cost overruns at labor work sites — LOL — that’s a good one!
But seriously folks - what does it take for the ICC to hold Nicor accountable for a storage field that has been leaking for decades? Customers have been paying to replace lost gas, buy and raze area farmsteads, and install a phony baloney collection system while the ICC pretends nothing is wrong.
Comment by Nobody Sent Monday, Jan 31, 22 @ 4:22 pm