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Illinois Warns Data Center Demand Could More Than Double ComEd's Entire Electricity System by 2040
IL
Data Centers / Energy & Grid
April 18, 2026
Source: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) via Capitol News Illinois
The Illinois House Executive Committee heard testimony that ComEd projects data center proposals in its territory could more than double the utility's system peak by 2040 — a demand level “it took us 120 years to achieve,” ComEd Director of Economic Workforce Development Max Leichtman told the committee. Brian Granahan, director of the Illinois Power Agency, told lawmakers there is “more demand pending in the customer connection queue than they traditionally had on the system, period."
The state is counting on the 2025 Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act to help meet this demand. Governor Pritzker recently ended a longstanding moratorium on new nuclear plant construction. But new wind and solar farms take three to four years to come online, and Granahan said the state is unlikely to invest in new natural gas production.
This echoes the IEA's global finding that data center demand is doubling every four years, but at the state level the math is even more stark: one customer class could require more electricity than all existing customers combined.
What You Can Do
Contact your Illinois state representative. The House Executive Committee is actively considering data center energy policy. Ask your representative where they stand on requiring data centers to bring or fund their own generation capacity, and whether they support a large-load tariff for ComEd's territory.
File comments with the Illinois Commerce Commission. The ICC regulates ComEd's rates. If ComEd files a rate case to fund infrastructure for data center demand, you can file public comments. Monitor upcoming proceedings at icc.illinois.gov.
Request ComEd's load forecast. ComEd's customer connection queue data is the foundation of the “double the system” projection. Request the utility's current load forecast from the ICC or through a FOIA request to understand which communities will bear the infrastructure build-out.
Community Takeaway
The open question Illinois is now grappling with — and one other states will face — is this: when one class of customer could require more electricity than all existing customers combined, who decides how that supply gets built and who bears the cost? Communities in states with large data center queues should ask their utilities for comparable load projections. The large-load tariff approach spreading from Colorado and Wyoming to 36 states is one mechanism — but tariffs alone can't solve a supply gap of this magnitude.
Source: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) via Capitol News Illinois, April 18, 2026.
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