December 12
ComEd to Launch New Program for Low-Income Customers in 2026
This week's top smart energy news, curated by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC).
Member News
The upcoming launch of the new Low-Income Discount (LID) program by ComEd is part of the energy company’s efforts to help customers manage increasing costs. The LID program, which will be available starting Jan. 1, 2026, will provide qualifying income-eligible customers with a percentage-based discount on their monthly electric bill based on income level, according to ComEd, a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corp.
Regardless of whether they live in an urban, suburban or rural area, U.S. consumers are largely aligned on their priorities when it comes to their electricity usage, according to a new paper from the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC). About one-third of consumers in each geographic area stated that saving money on their electric bill is of the utmost importance and that electricity providers should prioritize keeping rates affordable.
A recent study found that Americans are paying as much as $900 a year in costs directly related to climate change. This figure includes increases to insurance rates, which have risen approximately 33 percent between 2020 and 2023, and damages caused by wildfires or windstorms, for an aggregate total between $50 and $110 billion per year and rising.
Since spring of last year, North Carolina’s largest utility has been testing whether household batteries can help the electric grid in times of need – and now the company wants to roll out the plan to businesses, local governments and nonprofits too. Duke Energy has already paid hundreds of North Carolinians to let it tap power from their home storage systems when electricity demand is highest.
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Industry News
The longest-ever government shutdown has ended, but its impacts on everyday Americans are still trickling out. After weeks of shutdown-induced delays, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in late November finally released $3.6 billion in Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program funding. The program helps millions of households cover heating costs and, in years past, has been sent out in early November.
The United States added 2 GW of utility-scale solar to the grid in September, bringing total solar installed this year to 21 GW – slightly above the 20 GW installed over the same period last year, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s latest monthly infrastructure update. Solar accounted for 75 percent of the 28 GW of new generation installed in 2025 so far, followed by wind at 13 percent and gas at 11 percent.
Battery storage facilities and solar farms powered virtually all capacity growth in Texas’ electric grid throughout 2025, as the home of the nation’s oil and gas industry created almost twice as much new solar power as California. More than 5,200 MW, or approximately 10,500 MWh, of new battery storage made up the largest share of the more than 11,000 MW of new capacity, according to ERCOT.
The New York Power Authority approved a plan Tuesday to nearly double the state-owned utility’s goal for solar, wind and energy storage projects to 5.5 GW. The new investments would boost clean power in the state as the private market fails to deploy renewable energy fast enough to meet New York’s lofty decarbonization goals. In a unanimous decision, the board of trustees voted to greenlight the utility’s new strategic plan for renewables.
