An Illinois Appellate Court has reversed a ruling by the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) that had allowed Commonwealth Edison Co. to enter negotiated rate contracts with up to 25 large general-service customers to retain existing load. The ICC had ruled that the antibypass tariff would not conflict with state laws requiring filing and publication of utility rates, because it must contain a description of the pricing and service parameters used in negotiating the individual contracts. Re Commonwealth Edison Co., 153 PUR4th 151 (Ill.C.C.).
The Appellate Court (First District, Fifth Division) found that the ICC erred in allowing the utility to file a tariff that contained no specific rates, but instead referred to charges contained in contracts to be negotiated with eligible customers. Despite increasing changes in the public utility industries had made regulation more complicated, the court reaffirmed that the regulatory compact required strict compliance with state laws governing utility rates and operations, including the filing and publication of rates: "otherwise the regulatory world is turned on its head, as in this case, where the regulated has in effect become the regulator."