Illinois electricity prices - 19.22¢/kWh (July 2026)
Residential price, average bill, and the data-center story
- Residential electricity in Illinois costs 19.22¢/kWh as of - +11.6% year over year, per U.S. Energy Information Administration data.
- The average Illinois home used 1,005 kWh that month and paid an average bill of $193.07 (+4.7% vs a year earlier).
- Illinois has the 17th-highest residential electricity price of the 50 states and DC - 5% above the U.S. average of 18.31¢/kWh.
Price by sector
| Sector | ¢/kWh (July 2026) | 1-yr change |
|---|---|---|
| Residential | 19.22¢ | +11.6% |
| Commercial | 15.19¢ | +11.2% |
| Industrial | 11.87¢ | +11.6% |
Data centers & Illinois's electric bills
The Citizens Utility Board warned in December 2025 that Chicago-area electric bills could rise by up to $70 per month by 2028 due to data centers, after PJM's Independent Market Monitor attributed 70 percent, or $9.3 billion, of the year's electricity cost increase to data center demand. Aurora imposed a temporary moratorium on new data centers, and CUB is urging lawmakers to pass an Illinois POWER Act (SB 4016/HB 5513) requiring data centers to cover their grid costs.
- 2025-08-19 - The Citizens Utility Board, citing PJM's Independent Market Monitor, reported that 70 percent, or $9.3 billion, of the year's increase in electricity cost was the result of data center demand. Source: Citizens Utility Board
- 2025-12-16 - The Citizens Utility Board warned in December 2025 that electric bills in the Chicago area could go up by as much as $70 per month by 2028 because of data center demand if the issue is not addressed. Source: CBS News Chicago
- 2025-12 - Aurora, which had four operating data centers and five more under construction or in development, established a temporary moratorium on new data centers set to end in March, with officials planning to have regulatory measures in place by then. Source: CBS News Chicago
- 2026-02-13 - The Citizens Utility Board is urging Illinois lawmakers to pass the Illinois POWER Act (Senate Bill 4016/House Bill 5513), which would require data centers to cover their grid-connection costs, provide clean power to offset their consumption, pay into utility bill assistance funds, and prevent existing customers from subsidizing infrastructure upgrades. Source: Citizens Utility Board
Each item above is dated and linked to its primary source; entries are reviewed quarterly. See the large-load tariff tracker and the who-paid-what ledger for the cross-state picture.
Illinois is served by the PJM grid region (in part), where the price of guaranteed generating capacity is set in an annual auction - see PJM capacity auction prices for how that reaches retail bills.
Water
Electricity delivered in Illinois carries 2.46 liters of water per kilowatt-hour consumed at the power plants supplying it (1.38 L/kWh excluding hydropower reservoir evaporation), against a national average of 4.28. That is below the national figure, and it is a property of the grid here rather than of any one building: a data center drawing 100 GWh a year in Illinois accounts for about 65.1 million gallons of power-plant water before it cools anything. All states ranked →
A data center's water use is roughly twelve times larger once the water evaporated at its power plants is counted. The Colorado River arithmetic → · how the water numbers work →
All states ranked → · Download Illinois data (CSV) · Glossary