First-Rate Utilities

Open Market for Electricity

Companies in Illinois can choose their supplier of electric generation. That means you can choose the supplier that best meets your needs and/or preferences, including source/method of generation, cost, incentives and combination of services. Competition is not available in our neighboring states, meaning that businesses are locked in to the rates and services that the local utility has set.

Lake County is proud to be served by ComEd as its electricity transmission and distribution utility. ComEd is part of the Exelon Corporation, headquartered in Chicago. The ComEd service territory covers 11,411 square miles in Northern Illinois, stretching from the Wisconsin border to as far south as Pontiac, Ill., and from the Indiana border to the Mississippi River. It covers approximately 70 percent of the customers in Illinois and the vast majority of the state’s industrial companies. ComEd’s transmission and distribution systems are very robust, with more than 5,000 miles of overhead transmission lines and approximately 42,400 miles of overhead distribution lines. ComEd is committed to safely delivering reliable electricity throughout the 400+ communities it serves across Northern Illinois, including the City of Chicago.

Since 1999, ComEd has spent nearly $2 billion on significant investments in upgrading and maintaining our transmission and distribution systems, and the company plans to spend another $2 billion or more on the system over the next five years. Consequently, ComEd has significantly reduced its average number of outages per customer by 40% since 1999, yielding a stronger reliability statistic than New York, Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and many other municipalities. Furthermore, ComEd’s average length of outage has plummeted 60%, giving it yet another reliability statistic that outperforms utilities in other parts of the country.

Telecommunications

Lake County is served by AT&T, a diversified communications company, owning several of the world's leading data, voice and Internet services providers. Through world-class networks, AT & T provides a full range of voice, data, networking and e-business services.

TDS Metrocom is a subsidiary of TDS Telecom and part of the TDS family of companies [AMEX: TDS, TDS.S], a Chicago-based telecommunications corporation. Through its strategic business units, TDS Telecom and U.S. Cellular, TDS services customers in rural and suburban markets around the country.

Comcast was founded in 1963 as a single-system cable operation. Today, we’re the country’s largest provider of cable services - and one of the world’s leading communications companies. We’re focused on broadband cable, commerce, and content. We deliver digital services, provide faster Internet and clearer broadband phone service, and develop and deliver innovative programming.

Natural Gas

Nicor Gas is one of the nation's largest gas distribution companies. Owned by Nicor Inc. (NYSE: GAS) a holding company, Nicor Gas has provided safe and reliable natural gas services for more than 50 years. The Company serves more than 2.1 million customers in a service territory that encompasses most of the northern third of Illinois, excluding the city of Chicago.

Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas are now a subsidiary of Integrys Energy Group, Inc., the energy holding company formed by the recent merger of WPS Resources Corp. with Peoples Energy. Its gas distribution businesses — comprised of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas — serves about one million retail customers in Chicago and northeastern Illinois. Combined, Peoples Gas and its sister company North Shore Gas – which provides natural gas to the Lake County market — serve the energy needs of more than one million customers in Chicago and 54 communities in northeastern Illinois.

Water/Sewer

The Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency (CLCJAWA) is composed 12 communities in Lake County, Illinois. The agency provides potable water to a population estimated to be 190,000 people in 2005. The system is the third largest Lake Michigan water treatment system in Illinois and the first new water treatment facility constructed along Lake Michigan in more than 40 years.

The North Shore Sanitary District (NSSD) is a municipal body which was organized in 1914 under the North Shore Sanitary District Act of 1911. The NSSD owns and operates more than 100 miles of intercepting sewer lines and pumping stations which collect and convey wastewater from local sewer systems to wastewater treatment plants in Gurnee, Waukegan, and Highland Park, Illinois. Additional NSSD facilities include the NSSD Sludge Recycling Facility in Zion, the Administration Building and Laboratory in Gurnee, and the Maintenance Building in Waukegan.

Lake County Department of Public Works

The primary responsibility of the Lake County Department of Public Works is to provide water and sanitary sewer service to widely distributed portions of the county. The areas that this agency serves are depicted on this service area map. In total, the Lake County Department of Public Works provides service to more than 20,000 customers who are billed directly for water service and/or sanitary sewer service.

Certain portions of the county are served by other water and sewer systems such as the North Shore Sanitary District, the Lakes Region Sanitary District, the Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency and individual municipal systems. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency regulates water and sewer systems throughout the State of Illinois.

To determine which utilities serve your site, please contact Lake County Partners staff at lcp@lakecountypartners.com.