Illinois electricity auction
Published June 8th, 2006
The maximum opening fixed price for the Illinois electricity auction is $104 a megawatt hour — about double what ComEd customers pay now.
Business and residential customers probably will pay less. How much less is the big question that will be answered by Illinois’ first electricity auction, scheduled to begin Sept. 5.
Since the electricity auction is a reverse auction, prices that suppliers offer utilities will descend from the starting bid — the opposite of what happens in a regular auction. So the price will go down as the auction proceeds, until bidders and buyers settle on a closing price to supply the utilities’ need for electricity.
