Financially struggling ComEd customers can get grants of up to $500 to pay their energy bills under a new program.
AP
Financially struggling ComEd customers can get grants to help pay their energy bills under a $10 million program launching next month.
In response to rising energy costs, the utility has created a onetime relief fund. Residential customers will be eligible for grants of up to $500. Nonprofit groups can apply for assistance of up to $1,000.
The grant program will be administered by the Salvation Army and Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago. Interested customers can reach out to those two nonprofit groups for application information or apply online at comed.com/relief starting July 7. That webpage isn’t live yet.
To qualify, residential customers must be behind on ComEd bill payments and have household incomes at or below 300% of the federal poverty level, which is currently $32,150 for a family of four. Nonprofit organizations must also be in arrears to qualify.
Thousands of customers are expected to benefit from the grant program. The $10 million should last several months and help people until a new discount program for low-income customers launches in January, ComEd officials said.
ComEd’s president and CEO Gil C. Quiniones called the program a “bridge grant.”
Residential ComEd customers in Illinois will pay about 10% more for electricity starting this month because of increased supply costs, the utility announced in early June.
The rate for kilowatt-hours — the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour — is being increased by PJM Interconnection, the Pennsylvania-based company that operates the electrical grid for 13 states in the Midwest and on the East Coast, ComEd officials have said.
The average residential bill is expected to increase about $10.60 more per month because of the rate change.
The increase will affect about 4 million residential customers in Illinois. ComEd’s commercial customers likely will be affected, too, but the amounts will vary, officials said.
For more information about ComEd’s financial assistance programs, visit comed.com/billsupport.
