There’s another Chicago-area gas rate hike in the pipeline.
Nicor Gas filed a $221 million rate increase request Friday with the Illinois Commerce Commission to replace and repair aging pipelines and equipment, according to a news release.
If approved, the rate increase would raise average residential customer delivery charges by about $6 per month beginning in 2027, the utility said. The ICC review of the filing is expected to last up to 11 months.
Nicor, which is owned by Atlanta-based Southern Co., is the largest gas utility in Illinois, serving 2.3 million customers in suburban Chicago and northern Illinois
“Everything we do centers around our customers and communities,” Wendell Dallas, president and CEO of Nicor Gas, said in the release. “We understand that any increase can have an impact, and we don’t make this request lightly.”
The Nicor rate request seeks to fund a variety of ongoing infrastructure projects, including the replacement of old equipment and 45 miles of distribution pipeline. In addition, Nicor is looking to repair more than 400 miles of transmission pipeline, according to the release.
In November, the ICC slashed last year’s proposed Nicor Gas rate increase by nearly 47% to $168 million. That nonetheless raised the average delivery cost for residential customers by $3.30 per month beginning with the January bill, the utility told the Tribune.
“I’m shocked that Nicor is proposing to raise rates again, just one month after imposing its last rate hike,” Abe Scarr, director of Illinois PIRG, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, said in a statement. “Nicor is busting its customers’ household budgets because it apparently refuses to live within its own.”
Consumer groups are already challenging a new rate hike proposal by Peoples Gas. The utility, which serves 894,000 customers in Chicago, filed a $202 million rate hike request Monday with the Illinois Commerce Commission to recover projected costs for its accelerated pipeline replacement program.
If approved, the Peoples Gas rate increase would raise average residential customer delivery charges in Chicago by $10 to $11 per month beginning in 2027.
Last year, the ICC ordered Peoples to speed up and complete its long-running, multibillion-dollar pipeline replacement program by 2035. Peoples has a subterranean network of some 4,600 miles of pipes under the city, including significant stretches of original cast and ductile iron — some dating back to the 1800s — which pose a risk of gas leaks that could lead to an explosion. There are still 1,020 miles of aging iron pipes remaining under Chicago that need to be retired.
In testimony to the ICC, Peoples said it expected to spend $600 million between now and 2027 to meet the accelerated pipeline replacement schedule. In 2027, Peoples projects to spend $360 million to “retire aging pipes,” which will lead to a $202 million shortfall — the amount the utility is seeking in the rate hike request.
North Shore Gas, the sister company to Peoples Gas, which serves 165,000 customers in the northern suburbs, filed for a $14 million rate increase with the ICC. If approved, that is expected to raise residential customer delivery charges by $5.21 per month beginning in 2027, according to the utility.
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.
Peoples Gas supply prices are at 42 cents per therm in January, up 27% over the same month last year, according to published ICC data.
At North Shore Gas, supply prices are 53 cents per therm in January, an 18% year-over-year increase.
Nicor Gas customers are paying 42 cents per therm in January, a 50% year-over-year increase in supply costs.
Consumer groups, which protested the proposed Peoples Gas delivery rate increase Tuesday outside the utility’s downtown headquarters, plan to fight Nicor’s rate hike request as well.
“If Nicor is granted this $221 million increase, it would push the utility’s total rate increases to more than $1 billion in less than a decade,” Sarah Moskowitz, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, said in a statement. “CUB will challenge Nicor’s money grab and we call on state regulators to crack down on the utility.”
rchannick@chicagotribune.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/09/nicor-gas-seeks-rate-increase/
