Between now and the end of this year the City of Chicago will be moving aggressively toward the conclusion of a three-year process of reevaluating the city’s relationship with its utility partner, Commonwealth Edison.

Other municipalities across the country may want to take note and look to Chicago as a model on the transition to clean, renewable energy.

The goal of the reevaluation is to re-engineer and modernize the City’s electricity delivery system to meet the demands of the 21st century. As part of a much broader agenda known as Resilient Chicago, launched in 2019, the City is reevaluating what's known as the Electric Utility Franchise Agreement (henceforth referred to as ‘the FA’), which has been in effect since 1992 and expired at the end of 2020. (It is still in force under a clause that allowed for a period of transition at expiration.)

What’s happening in Chicago, right now, is a very important, very big deal.