Illinois Cannabis Energy: Electricity Choice, Rates, and Utilities for Licensed Operators

How the Illinois cannabis market is built

Illinois legalized adult-use sales under the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act, with the first legal sale on January 1, 2020, and the older medical program under the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Program Act still runs alongside it [il-annual-cannabis-report-2025]. Two agencies split oversight. The Illinois Department of Agriculture licenses cultivation centers, craft growers, infusers, and transporters. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation licenses dispensaries [il-annual-cannabis-report-2025].

The supply side is small in license count but large in square footage. As of the FY2025 annual report there were 21 adult-use cultivation centers and 87 craft grower licenses, 108 cultivation licenses in total, plus 55 infuser licenses and 164 transporter licenses [il-annual-cannabis-report-2025]. Only 21 of the craft growers were operational at the report date, which means dozens of craft facilities were still in planning or construction [il-annual-cannabis-report-2025]. On the retail side IDFPR issued 93 operational dispensary licenses during FY2025, the most in any single year, and describes a more than 100 percent increase in dispensary count over two years [il-annual-cannabis-report-2025]. The report does not print one headline store total, so check IDFPR's Active License Report for a current number.

Two features of this market matter for energy buying:

• Cultivation centers are few and large. A 21-license cultivation tier serving a state of this size means each one carries a load that lands in the upper delivery classes at ComEd or Ameren.
• Craft growers are many and mid-sized, capped by statute in canopy, and mostly still under construction. Every one of the 87 craft licenses issued through FY2025 went to a social equity applicant, and the state runs Direct Forgivable Loan rounds for those licensees [il-annual-cannabis-report-2025]. A craft grow that has not yet energized has not yet been assigned a rate class, and that is the cheapest moment to get the class right.

How electricity choice works in Illinois

Illinois opened its retail electricity market under the Electric Service Customer Choice and Rate Relief Law of 1997, codified at 220 ILCS 5/16-101 and following, with commercial choice arriving in 1999 [il-plugin-illinois]. The Illinois Commerce Commission regulates the market and certifies competitive sellers as Alternative Retail Electric Suppliers, or ARES, under 220 ILCS 5/16-115 and 83 Ill. Adm. Code Part 451 [icc-ares-certification]. The ICC publishes the list of certified ARES through its entity database [icc-ares-certification].

The plain-language version, from the ICC's own choice site: customers in the Ameren Illinois, ComEd, and MidAmerican territories can pick who supplies the electricity, the utility keeps delivering it, and delivery charges are the same whether or not you switch [plugin-choice-basics]. Reliability, outage response, and maintenance stay with the utility and stay regulated by the ICC [plugin-choice-basics]. The practical exception is MidAmerican's Quad Cities footprint, where supplier interest is too thin for most customers to find an offer [il-plugin-illinois].

If you do not choose, you get the utility's default supply. At ComEd this is Basic Electric Service, and the published benchmark is the Price to Compare, defined as the electric supply charge plus the transmission services charge. ComEd's residential Price to Compare for summer 2026 is 10.399 cents per kWh, made up of 8.677 cents supply and 1.722 cents transmission, effective June 1 through September 30, 2026 [il-plugin-illinois]. Commercial benchmarks differ by delivery class, and larger business customers default to hourly market pricing rather than a fixed number. Customers on a supplier contract are not subject to the utility's Purchased Electricity Adjustment, the monthly true-up on default supply [il-plugin-illinois].

One thing that trips up operators moving in from other states: Illinois is not one wholesale market. ComEd belongs to PJM and Ameren Illinois belongs to MISO [il-plugin-illinois]. Capacity, transmission, and ancillary costs are calculated differently in each and show up differently in supplier quotes. A fixed, index, or block-and-index contract has to be read in the context of the ISO the facility sits in.

What commercial power costs in Illinois vs. the U.S.

Sector	Illinois, June 2026	U.S. average, June 2026
Commercial	14.53 cents/kWh	14.19 cents/kWh
Industrial	10.65 cents/kWh	not shown in state file

Source: EIA Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A [eia-epm-5-6-a].

Illinois commercial power runs about 2 percent above the national average. The bigger number for a grower is the gap between the commercial and industrial averages, nearly four cents. That gap is mostly delivery structure and load factor, not fuel. A facility that runs lights on a fixed schedule with a flat, predictable demand looks more like an industrial customer to the utility and to suppliers, and pays closer to the industrial figure. A facility with spiky, poorly managed demand pays commercial-class delivery on a high peak. Understanding how rate classes are assigned is the first lever; the supplier contract is the second.

The utilities and where they serve

Utility	Territory	Grid operator	Business delivery classes
ComEd (Commonwealth Edison)	Chicago and northern Illinois	PJM	Watt-hour, small, medium, large, very large, extra large load; larger classes pay a per-kW distribution facilities charge on the highest 30-minute demand
Ameren Illinois	Central and southern Illinois: Springfield, Peoria, Champaign, Metro East	MISO	DS-1 through DS-4 keyed to demand; DS-3 and DS-4 pay per-kW distribution delivery charges
MidAmerican Energy	Quad Cities area	Small Illinois footprint	Choice exists on paper; few practical supplier offers

Sources: Plug In Illinois and utility tariff pages as listed in the state data [il-plugin-illinois].

The ComEd page covers class thresholds, the hourly default for larger loads, and consolidated billing: ComEd for cannabis facilities. The Ameren page does the same for DS-2 through DS-4 and the Hourly Supply Service default: Ameren Illinois for cannabis facilities. The Illinois commercial rate page puts the two side by side with the EIA figures.

What the climate does to a grow's bill here

Illinois is continental: cold winters, humid summers. Statewide normals run to 6,105 heating degree days and 889 cooling degree days per year [noaa-cag-illinois]. Summer dew points in the 60s and 70s Fahrenheit across much of the state push dehumidification load up from June through September [noaa-cag-illinois]. For a sealed grow room that means two different problems in one year: winter envelope heat loss that lets you use less mechanical cooling but demands tighter humidity control, and a summer where the HVAC is removing both sensible heat from the lights and latent heat from the plants and the outdoor air. The cultivation page works through what that does to peak demand and which delivery class a given canopy lands in.

Incentives worth knowing

• ComEd Energy Efficiency Program. Prescriptive and custom business incentives funded under the state's energy efficiency portfolio standard. The standard incentive list includes LED grow lights that meet DLC horticultural listing and efficacy requirements [comed-ee-business].
• Ameren Illinois Business Energy Efficiency Program. Standard and custom incentives for lighting, HVAC, refrigeration, and process improvements for Ameren business customers [ameren-ee-business].
• Illinois Shines (Adjustable Block Program). Run by the Illinois Power Agency. Fifteen-year fixed-price renewable energy credit contracts for on-site distributed generation in the Large DG track, 25 kW to 2 MW, and for community solar subscriptions, created under FEJA and expanded by CEJA [illinois-shines]. A grow with roof or ground space can pair this with an on-site array; a dispensary in a leased storefront is more likely to use a community solar subscription.

Incentive programs change their measure lists and budgets year to year. Confirm current eligibility with the utility program before ordering fixtures.

Illinois quirks that change the advice

CEJA multi-year rate plans. The Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, Public Act 102-0662, moved ComEd and Ameren to multi-year rate plans with performance metrics. Delivery charges now change on a schedule the ICC approved in Dockets 23-0055 and 23-0082 [icc-ceja]. The supply side of your bill is what a supplier contract controls; the delivery side is going to move regardless, and a good supply contract does not freeze it.

Two ISOs in one state. Because ComEd is in PJM and Ameren is in MISO, capacity and transmission pass-through costs behave differently north and south [il-plugin-illinois]. A supplier quoting an operator with sites in both is really quoting two products. The multi-site page covers how to structure that.

Social equity buildout timing. Many craft grows are still in buildout, and buildout is when service size and rate class get decided [il-annual-cannabis-report-2025]. Ask the utility for the class definition before the electrician sizes the service.

Where to go next on this site

• Facility guides: cultivation, extraction and processing, dispensary retail, multi-site operators.
• Procedure: how to switch electricity suppliers in Illinois.
• Numbers: Illinois commercial electricity rates.
• Background: what energy deregulation is and how demand charges work.

Illinois law and tariffs change on ICC dockets, and this page is a summary, not legal advice. Confirm current rules with the ICC or your advisor before signing a contract.