Jean Gay-Robinson said she “cried tears of joy” when the utility ComEd replaced all the polluting gas equipment in her Chicago home with modern electric versions, at no cost to her. As a retiree on a fixed income, she is relieved that she never has to buy another appliance, her energy bills are lower and her home seems safer. “I don’t have to worry about gas explosions or carbon monoxide, that kind of nonsense,” she said.
Gay-Robinson is among hundreds of people who have benefited from a provision of the Illinois Clean Energy Act of 2021 that allows electric utilities to meet their energy-saving mandates by equipping low-income households with electrical appliances that lower their bills — even though such overhauls actually increase, rather than decrease, electricity consumption.
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Such policies are rare on a national scale, but this approach could be a tool to continue building decarburization as the Trump administration removes federal incentives for home electrification.
Modern electrical appliances – like induction cookers, electric clothes dryers and heat pumps that heat and cool spaces – are generally much more energy efficient than their fossil fuel counterparts. That means electrifying devices reduces the amount of fossil fuels burned, even in places where gas and coal plants feed the power grid, said Nick Montoni, senior director of the policy and markets program at North Carolina State University’s North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center. As more renewable energy comes online, emissions from electrical appliances fall even further.
Additionally, families breathe much cleaner indoor air when they switch to an electric cooktop, due to the many health-damaging pollutants emitted by gas stoves.
But replacing appliances isn’t cheap, and under the Trump administration’s budget law, federal tax credits intended to help households afford heat pumps and electric water heaters expire in December, seven years earlier than they were previously supposed to. Meanwhile, the future is uncertain for the federally funded Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates (HEAR) program, an Inflation Reduction Act initiative that is administered by states and offers incentives for electrical appliances. While some states have already launched their HEAR programs, the Trump administration put remaining funds on ice earlier this year, and Illinois has yet to receive its allocation.
Amid this federal upheaval, state policies that incentivize utilities to foot the bill for electrification can have a particularly big impact.
“Electrification is expensive because it requires an upfront cost,” said Montoni, former deputy chief of staff at the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “You need to be able to afford a heat pump, an induction cooker, an electric water heater – these are not cheap. That’s why there are rebates and incentives.”
Illinois Utilities Commit to Electrification
Illinois law requires ComEd to reduce its electricity consumption each year by an amount equivalent to 2% of its annual sales in the early 2020s. The state’s other big power company, Ameren, will be subject to similar rules in 2029 under a law passed this fall, even though in the past it had lower savings mandates.
The Climate and Fair Jobs Act of 2021 specifies that a portion of mandatory energy savings – 5% since 2022, 10% starting next year and 15% after 2029 – can come from electrification. The law also created a formula for converting the amount of energy used by a gas-powered appliance to electricity into kilowatt-hours, making it possible to estimate the amount of energy saved by switching from gas to electricity.
“So, if a home is partially or fully electrified through an electric energy efficiency program, the utility claims the savings by calculating the difference between gas thermal baths in kilowatt-hour equivalents and kilowatt-hour equivalents.[-hours] added via electrical measures,” said Kari Ross, Midwest energy affordability advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Montoni called the policy “a pretty interesting mechanism – not unique, but very rare, from what I’ve seen.” »
Michigan has a similar policy, as a 2023 law allows electric and gas utilities to claim electrification as part of their mandatory energy waste reduction. This legislation also includes a formula for determining energy efficiency gains from switching to electricity.
Montoni said allowing electric utilities to factor electrification into their efficiency mandates is an important way to encourage a shift away from fossil fuels, especially in more than a dozen states where different utilities provide electricity and gas service.
When a utility provides both gas and electricity, electrification typically generates overall energy savings, Montoni explained. But when a utility only provides electricity, a formula similar to Illinois’ is required for the utility to show that it is saving energy, even if a given customer’s electricity use actually increases after electrification.
In northern Illinois, ComEd is the primary electric utility, operating alongside two large gas utilities.
Through its energy-efficient whole home electrification program, ComEd pays all upfront costs of electrical appliances and heat pumps for households earning 80 percent or less of the area median income. This initiative has electrified more than 700 low-income households since its launch in 2022. The utility also offers rebates to customers of all incomes for the purchase of electrical appliances, including geothermal heat pumps.
ComEd’s energy efficiency plan, approved by state regulators, says a quarter of energy savings from electrification must go to low-income households, and the utility can only undertake electrification if it saves the customer money on their energy bills. Michigan law includes a similar provision.
“We carefully model each home to ensure that proposed improvements result in energy savings,” said Philip Roy, ComEd’s director of clean energy solutions. “Nationally, I’m pretty sure this is one of the most ambitious approaches to electrification, especially for income-eligible customers.”
Gay-Robinson said she has saved money on her bills since remodeling her home last summer and, more importantly, has reliable appliances to deal with Chicago’s extreme weather.
She recommended ComEd’s overhaul to a friend who suffered from hot summers, poor health and no air conditioning. Gay-Robinson believes the electric heating and cooling system her friend got for free may have saved her life.
Gay-Robinson said she still prefers to cook with gas, but she is grateful that ComEd provided new cookware with her electric induction range. “I thought it would be difficult to even operate the stove. It looks like something from the future,” she said. “But it wasn’t as hard as I thought.”
Other renovations like Gay-Robinson’s are underway. As part of an agreement with stakeholder groups and regulators, ComEd committed to spending a total of $162.3 million over the next four years on electrification and weatherization, which reduces the amount of energy needed to heat and cool spaces.
In central and southern Illinois, Ameren provides gas and electric services.
Ameren has not undertaken ambitious electrification programs like ComEd, and its energy efficiency mandates were lower until the Clean Energy Act passed in October put its goals on par with ComEd’s. But Ameren will spend $5 million through 2029 to help customers switch from propane heating, common in rural areas, to electric heat pumps.
Changing times
Home electrification retrofits that reduce energy bills may be more difficult to achieve in Illinois and beyond in the future as electricity prices soar due to the record cost of ensuring sufficient power generation capacity for the PJM Regional Interconnection Grid, which spans 13 states.
Since ComEd is only allowed to offer its customers new electrical appliances that will lower their bills, high electricity prices mean that some swaps that worked in the past will no longer qualify; keeping a gas appliance may be cheaper.
“We’re at a moment where new iterations are needed” on electrification policies, Roy said, also citing the impacts of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on appliance costs and the impending expiration of federal tax credits for energy-efficient equipment.
Roy noted that with rooftop solar and batteries, a household can harness clean, free electricity to power their appliances. Illinois offers strong incentives for low-income households to purchase solar power, potentially with no upfront costs.
“We are seeing strong momentum with these programs,” Roy said. “We think [electrification] will play a key role not only in energy efficiency targets but also in wider energy policy. Combining all of these elements – traditional energy efficiency, electrification, rooftop solar, battery storage – we have many tools, we just need to refine policy structures and incentives so we can accelerate the transition.
