Will I still get an electric bill after going solar in Illinois?

Yes. Every Illinois solar home still gets a monthly bill, because two things survive any system size: fixed charges — a customer charge and a meter charge at both ComEd and Ameren — and delivery charges on every kilowatt-hour you still draw from the grid at night, in cloudy stretches, and through winter. What solar attacks is the supply portion. Honest math starts there, not at zero.

A pitch that promises your bill disappears is describing a bill structure that doesn't exist in Illinois. The page below itemizes exactly what stays, what shrinks, and what the one narrow exception actually is — every figure dated and sourced, so you can check us.

Three bill components, three different fates. Supply — the electricity itself — is what solar attacks: self-consumption erases part of it, and export credits offset more. Delivery keeps billing on every kilowatt-hour you draw from the grid, with no delivery-side crediting for new systems. And the fixed customer and meter charges arrive every month no matter what your roof produces.

The mechanics in one paragraph: for systems interconnected on or after January 1, 2025, Illinois net metering is supply-only — the program's own wording is that customers "pay delivery charges for the entire amount of electricity that they pull from the grid," while exports earn credits against the supply portion, which at both ComEd and Ameren includes the transmission charge. The full mechanics, the legacy rules, and the Hourly Pricing wrinkle live on our ComEd net metering and Ameren net metering pages — this page stays on the bill itself.

As of January 1, 2026, a single-family ComEd home without electric heat pays a $15.26 monthly customer charge plus a $3.81 standard metering charge — $19.07 a month that no solar system removes. Multi-family homes pay an $11.51 customer charge; single-family electric-heat homes pay $18.18. Delivery rates reset each January, which is why every figure here carries its date. All the current rate tables are on Illinois electric rates.

Two sourcing notes, because this number gets misquoted constantly. First: the $8.55 figure circulating online as "ComEd's fixed charge" is actually Ameren's customer charge — a different utility. Second: ComEd's own January 2026 summary of residential line-item charges lists $15.26 and $3.81, and the Citizens Utility Board's 2026 guide lists the same figures. That's also your reminder that any page quoting fixed charges without a date is guessing.

ComEd figures: single-family, non-electric-heat class (multi-family $11.51; electric-heat $18.18). Ameren's customer charge includes small program supplementals, per CUB. ComEd figures are from ComEd's January 2026 summary of residential line-item charges, confirmed by CUB. That sheet also lists a flat $1.17 "Low Income Discount Recovery" charge in the taxes and fees section, which solar doesn't remove either. Ameren figures are from CUB's 2026 Power-Bill Guide.

Ameren Illinois homes pay an $8.55 monthly customer charge — the figure sometimes misquoted as ComEd's — plus a $5.96 meter charge: $14.51 in total, as of January 1, 2026. The customer charge bundles several small program supplementals, per the Citizens Utility Board.

Export credits change nothing about the fixed charges or the delivery billed on what you draw. The Ameren-side rules live on Ameren net metering in Illinois.

Here's the honest shape of a ComEd bill after solar at today's price, which runs October 2026 through May 2027 — every input declared, nothing promised. Take a home using 693 kWh a month, the 2024 Illinois average (see how it compares). Assume, purely for illustration, that solar plus export credits offsets 90% of the supply line. In the darkest winter months the share is usually lower; see the winter question below. Supply falls from about $70 to about $7. The fixed $19.07 doesn't move. Delivery still bills on every kilowatt-hour drawn from the grid.

Notice what's missing: a total. Any page that hands you a finished "typical bill after solar" total invented at least one of these lines. Ameren homes: same structure — swap in 10.441¢ supply (first 800 kWh, October 2026 to May 2027) and the $14.51 fixed from the table above. (Why Ameren bills run high covers the rest.) The number that matters is yours, from your usage history — which is exactly what a real eligibility check runs.

Two real reasons — neither applies to a new system on standard rates. Legacy systems interconnected before January 1, 2025 that did not take a utility Distributed Generation rebate keep full-retail netting for the life of the system, even after the home is sold. They lose it only if the system is changed in a big way: at ComEd, a change that needs a new interconnection application; at Ameren, more than doubling its size. Those credits can flatten the usage charges, but the fixed customer and meter charges still bill. And on ComEd's Hourly Pricing program, export credits are dollar-value credits, and when they exceed the cost of the bill the excess carries to the next billing cycle.

The Hourly Pricing path is the one structure that can genuinely zero a ComEd bill, and it's a real program with real trade-offs — covered on the ComEd net metering page and, with the full math, on the ComEd Hourly Pricing guide. Ameren Illinois has a similar program, Power Smart Pricing; we have only checked how the ComEd bill works. Before switching, know that the Citizens Utility Board says moving an Ameren account from a fixed price to Power Smart Pricing wipes out stored credits, and Ameren says a home that picks it can't later move to another supply option. If a sales pitch promises a zero bill without saying the words "Hourly Pricing," it's promising someone else's bill.

Yes — on the part you still buy. Both utilities' supply prices changed on October 1, 2026 (ComEd: 10.103¢ per kWh, down from 10.399¢; Ameren: 10.441¢ for the first 800 kWh, down from 11.326¢; both run through May 31, 2027). The transmission part changes again in January 2027, delivery rates and fixed charges reset each January, and the next supply reset is June 1, 2027. Solar shrinks how many kilowatt-hours those resets touch; it doesn't freeze the rates.

What's coming next: each year the utilities ask the Illinois Commerce Commission to settle up the past year's delivery costs. ComEd is asking to recover $234 million (Docket 26-0215) and Ameren $65.3 million (Docket 26-0214). ComEd says that, together with a $128 million refund of extra 2025 revenue, its filing would lower the average home bill by about $1.22 a month in 2027, if approved as filed. The Citizens Utility Board expects the judges' proposed orders in early November and final orders in December 2026. Those are CUB's expected dates, not an official ICC schedule. Last year's decisions took effect January 1, so any change would most likely show up on January 2027 bills. One more ComEd change: the carbon-free credit that has been trimming bills is set to end in June 2027, per the Citizens Utility Board.

That's not a reason to skip solar — it's the reason the math has to be honest. A system sized to your usage cuts your exposure to the next supply reset (June 1, 2027) and every one after it (here is what ComEd's October 2026 change did), because resets can only bill the kilowatt-hours you still draw. What they can't do is touch the fixed charges — those move on their own January schedule, solar or not. The longer story of why Illinois bills climbed lives on Why is my ComEd bill so high?

Expect the same bill with a smaller supply section and one new credit line. For post-2025 systems, look for the export credit in the supply section of the bill, where it offsets the supply and transmission lines at both utilities, and a banked-credit balance if you produced more than you used — credits roll forward and don't expire. The delivery section and the fixed charges will look untouched. That's normal, not a mistake.

One honesty note: line names differ by utility and can change, so we describe the mechanics rather than quote label text. If your first bill shows a credit somewhere unexpected — or no credit at all — that's a call to the utility, not a reason to panic. And if you'd rather see the shape of your own numbers before any panels exist: the free check below models the bill you'd actually have — remaining charges included, zero-bill promises excluded.