What is the Carbon-Free Energy Resource Adjustment on Your ComEd Electric Bill?

Under the “Supply” and “Delivery” sections of your monthly ComEd electric bill lies a lengthy list of “Taxes, Fees & Other Credits.” Among a handful of charges for things like Energy Efficiency Programs and the Renewable Portfolio Standard, one item may stand out – a sizeable credit labeled “Carbon-Free Energy Resource Adj.”

So, what is it, and why are ComEd customers receiving this credit?

The Carbon-Free Energy Resource Adjustment or CFRA is a per-kilowatt-hour charge or credit to ratepayer bills, established by state policy. Designed to support select Illinois nuclear power plants, the CFRA adjusts based on energy market prices: it appears as a charge when energy prices are low and as a credit when energy prices are high. In this way, it helps shield customers from price spikes.

To better understand why the CRFA is structured this way, let’s go back to 2021.

Five years ago, landmark climate legislation called the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act was signed into law. Among a slew of provisions to push the state toward affordable, equitable clean energy, the 900-page law included an initiative to provide revenue certainty to certain nuclear plants. Why? Nuclear energy accounts for roughly 54% of the state’s electricity generation, significantly contributing to the state’s carbon-free goals.

Under the law, the revenue certainty would come from the state’s purchase of Carbon Mitigation Credits or CMCs from eligible nuclear plants, with CMCs representing the environmental attributes of the plants’ carbon-free electricity. To fund the initiative, a small charge is applied to customer bills. The purchase of CMCs would operate as a much-needed subsidy to keep plants operational during periods of low energy prices when market revenues are insufficient to cover costs.

However, the policy includes an important safeguard: when energy prices are high, nuclear plants would be required to return excess revenue to ratepayers, turning that “charge” into a financial credit. 

That second scenario is what many customers are seeing today. With consumers across the nation feeling the burden of higher electricity costs, Illinois’ CMC initiative has provided significant relief to ComEd’s more than 4.1 million customers, including its approximately 3.8 million residential customers. In fact, since the initiative began operating in 2022, ComEd customers have received a net credit of over $2.126 billion on their electricity bills, and that number is growing. In January 2026 alone, approximately $404 million was credited directly to ComEd’s residential, commercial, and industrial customers.

By lowering costs during periods of high electricity prices, the Carbon-Free Energy Resource Adjustment both supports carbon-free energy and provides a built-in buffer for customers against price spikes.