Commonwealth Edison Co. Thursday petitioned the Illinois Commerce Commission for permission to discount certain electric service to large industrial customers, as an incentive to economic growth and to keep the customers from defecting to other energy systems.
The discount, which Edison officials have discussed with the ICC, is one reaction to a nationwide trend of large electric users, such as factories and municipalities, seeking drastic relief from high electric bills attributable to nuclear programs of utilities.
Edison earlier this year agreed to cut rates for four communities that buy electric and resell it to residents, after they threatened to draw their electric from other sources. That action occurred after west suburban Geneva contracted to buy electricity from a Wisconsin utility.
Edison also had granted a discount to Northwestern Steel & Wire Co. a large customer at Sterling, Ill., for electricity consumption exceeding that of a record high period.
Thursday`s filing is similar to the plan for Northwestern Steel & Wire. Edison said about 100 of its 600 large industrial customers would probably qualify for one of two discounts. Both of the discounts decline over consecutive months, on electric demand 110 percent or greater than its all-time 12-month high.
Spokesman John Hogan said the discount won`t increase electric rates for other industrial or residential customers.
The discount applies to ”all-new business, only on kilowatt-hours that wouldn`t have been used (by the customer) otherwise,” he said. The result, he said, is that fixed costs to all customers are reduced, insofar as total use increases.
Hogan disclosed that Edison ”is talking to another firm” in the Chicago area, which he wouldn`t name, about a discount similar to Northwestern Steel & Wire`s. He said it wasn`t clear how much additional revenue the utility might reap under the plan.
Industrial customers that would likely benefit from the plan, sources say, include the Chrysler Corp. plant at Belvidere, Ill., the Ford Motor Co. and United States Steel Corp. plants on Chicago`s South Side and the Reynolds Metals Co. plant in west suburban McCook, in addition to several steel mills. Edison`s president, James J. O`Connor, said the new rate ”is intended to create jobs, preserve existing ones, and enhance the total economic development of Northern Illinois.”
Edison last year proposed to the ICC a discount rate, but was rebuffed because according to that plan the utility would have determined which customers were eligible. The ICC is to decide on Edison`s new proposal by November.
Edison`s proposal says manufacturing customers that demonstrate increased demand for electric to a level of at least 5,000 kilowatt-hours during nine months of a contract year would be eligible for either of two discounts:
— A declining percentage discount over 60 consecutive months on all demand that is 110 percent or more of a record 12-month high. The discount is 100 percent for the first year, and is 80, 60, 40, and 20 percent, respectively, for the succeeding years.
— A 50 percent discount on demand that is 110 percent or more of a record 12-month high, plus a 1 cent/kilowatthour discount on peak demand that is 110 percent or more of the monthly peak in a previous 12-month period.
The combined discount applies for 36 consecutive months, but if peak monthly use falls below the predetermined base, the deficit must be made up for the discount to continue.
