Jean Gay-Robinson said she “cried tears of joy” when utility ComEd switched all the polluting gas-fired equipment in her Chicago home to modern electric versions, at no cost to her. As a retiree on a fixed income, she is relieved that she’ll likely never have to buy another appliance, her energy bills are lower, and her home feels safer. “I don’t have to worry about gas blowing up or carbon monoxide, that kind of nonsense,” she said.
Gay-Robinson is among the hundreds of people who have benefited from a provision of Illinois’ 2021 clean-energy law that allows electric utilities to meet energy-conservation mandates in part by outfitting low-income households with electric appliances that reduce their bills — even though such overhauls actually increase, rather than decrease, electricity use.
Such policies are rare nationwide, but the approach could be a tool to help keep building decarbonization rolling as the Trump administration kills federal incentives for home electrification.
Modern electrical appliances — like induction stoves, electric dryers, and heat pumps that warm and cool spaces — are generally much more energy-efficient than their fossil-fueled counterparts. That means electrifying appliances cuts the amount of fossil fuels burned, even in places where gas and coal plants feed the power grid, said Nick Montoni, senior program director of policy and markets at the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center at North Carolina State University. As more renewable energy comes online, the emissions linked to electrical appliances decrease even further.
Plus, families breathe significantly cleaner indoor air when they change to an electric cooktop, due to the slew of health-harming pollutants emitted by gas stoves.
Illinois utilities commit to electrification
Illinois law requires ComEd to cut electricity consumption each year by an amount equivalent to 2% of the utility’s annual sales in the early 2020s. The state’s other big electric utility, Ameren, faces similar rules in 2029 under a law passed this fall, though in the past it had lower savings mandates.