With utility rates rising across Illinois, consumer groups are backing proposed legislation to wring $40 million per year in hidden expenses out of customer bills.

The Utility Transparency Act, sponsored by state Sen. Suzy Glowiak Hilton and Rep. Theresa Mah, is seeking to prohibit investor-owned utilities such as ComEd and Peoples Gas from charging customers for everything from trade association memberships and shareholder insurance protection to advertising.

Illinois utilities are even able to charge customers for outside legal services and expert witnesses used to push for rate hikes at the Illinois Commerce Commission.

Consumer groups Citizens Utility Board, 350 Chicago and AARP Illinois held a news conference Wednesday morning in Springfield to bring attention to the proposed legislation and the hidden expenses adding to already high monthly utility bills.

“I’ve talked to some of my constituents, and they’re saying that their bills haven’t just ticked up, that they’ve doubled,” Glowiak Hilton, a Democrat from Western Springs, said during the news conference. “What we should be doing is delivering energy to homes and businesses, not asking people to pay for extra things that don’t do that.”

Under current Illinois law, utilities are able to pass along certain costs that consumer groups have long argued do not directly benefit customers. The proposed legislation would shift those costs, which are buried in delivery charges on monthly customer bills, to company shareholders.

A Citizens Utility Board analysis of documents filed in rate cases before the ICC from 2023 to 2025 found that the proposed legislation could save Illinois ratepayers about $40 million per year. Similar legislation has passed in Connecticut, Colorado and Maine.

Chicago-area customers have been hit by a one-two punch of higher delivery rates charged by utility companies and spiking energy costs, which are passed through to suppliers. Some ComEd customers saw a triple-digit increase in their total June electricity bills due to a supply rate increase and high demand during a summer heat wave.

Last month, ComEd filed a $15.3 billion, four-year grid plan with the ICC to meet projected increased electricity demand among its 4.1 million customers across northern Illinois. While ComEd will not file a rate request reflecting the grid plan until next year, it is projected to increase residential customer bills by about $3 per month starting in 2028, the utility said.

Meanwhile, both Peoples Gas and Nicor Gas are seeking rate increases as supply costs continue to rise.

Nicor, which serves 2.3 million customers in suburban Chicago and northern Illinois, filed a $221 million rate increase request last month with the ICC to replace and repair aging pipelines and equipment. If approved, it would raise average residential customer delivery charges by about $6 per month beginning in 2027, the utility said.

Residential gas bills include both supply and distribution charges. While the utilities don’t make any money on the supply end — the natural gas itself — they are responsible for procuring it as efficiently as possible, to hold down the cost paid by customers.

Nicor Gas supply prices are at 53 cents per therm in February, up 66% over the same month last year, according to published ICC data.

Peoples Gas filed for a $202 million rate hike last month with the ICC to recover projected costs for its accelerated pipeline replacement program.

If approved, the rate increase request would raise average residential customer delivery charges by $10 to $11 per month beginning in 2027, the utility said.

Ordered by the ICC to retire more than 1,000 miles of old cast iron pipe by the end of 2034, Peoples Gas began work this week, excavating streets, sidewalks and parkways to install new plastic pipes across 10 Chicago neighborhoods from Budlong Woods to Rosemoor to Schorsch Village, the utility said.