Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, The Illuminating Company provides electricity transmission and distribution to the northeast Ohio region.
The Illuminating Company is owned and operated by FirstEnergy Corp (NYSE: FE), one of the nation’s largest electricity operators with 6,000,000 customers. FirstEnergy is headquartered in Akron, Ohio.
Consumers in The Illuminating Company area can choose a Certified Retail Electricity Supplier (CRES) for their electricity supply.
Areas Served By The Illuminating Company
The Illuminating Company serves an area of northeast Ohio along Lake Erie. Cities served includes Cleveland and surrounding suburbs, Mentor, Painesville, Grand River, Perry, Ashtabula, Madison, Geneva, Edgewood, and Conneaut.
Best Cleveland Illuminating Company Certified Retail Electric Supplier Rates
| The Illuminating Company (FirstEnergy)’s residential Price to Compare for the generation supply portion of your bill is 7.99¢/kWh from January 1, 2025 – March 31, 2025. Compare that to the supplier rates below. | ||||
| Plan Name | Term | Rate/kWh | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Power 12 Month Fixed with Monthly Fee | 12 | 6.09 ¢ | ||
| Energy Harbor Safe Harbor Value 6 | 6 | 7.19 ¢ | ||
| Public Power 6 Month Fixed | 6 | 7.29 ¢ | ||
| Direct Energy Live Brighter 6 | 6 | 7.39 ¢ | ||
| APG&E True Classic 6 | 6 | 7.60 ¢ | ||
| Energy Harbor Safe Harbor Value 12 | 12 | 7.89 ¢ | ||
| Public Power 12 Month Fixed | 12 | 7.99 ¢ | ||
| Direct Energy Live Brighter 12 | 12 | 8.09 ¢ | ||
| XOOM Energy SureLock 12 | 12 | 8.19 ¢ | ||
| XOOM Energy SimpleClean 12 | 12 | 8.59 ¢ | ||
The Illuminating Company Price to Compare
The Illuminating Company price to compare or standard service offer is the rate you will pay for electric generation if you do not switch to an alternative electricity supplier.
Refer to your most recent Illuminating Company utility bill to confirm your specific price to compare when shopping for an electricity supplier.
Current and Historic Illuminating Company Residential Price to Compare
| Effective Date | Price to Compare |
|---|---|
| January 1, 2025 - March 31, 2025 | 7.99¢ |
| October 1, 2024 - December 31, 2024 | 8.56¢ |
| September 1, 2024 - September 30, 2024 | 8.74¢ |
| June 1, 2024 - August 31, 2024 | 9.45¢ |
| April 1, 2024 - May 31, 2024 | 11.08¢ |
| January 1, 2024 - March 31, 2024 | 10.45¢ |
| October 1, 2023 - December 31, 2023 | 9.60¢ |
| September 1, 2023 - September 30, 2023 | 9.6112¢ |
| July 1, 2023 - August 31, 2023 | 11.27¢ |
| June 1, 2023 - June 30, 2023 | 12.40¢ |
| April 1, 2023 - May 31, 2023 | 5.90¢ |
| January 1, 2023 - March 31, 2023 | 5.47¢ |
| October 1, 2022 - December 31, 2022 | 5.84¢ |
| September 1, 2022 - September 30, 2022 | 5.90¢ |
| July 1, 2022 - August 31, 2022 | 5.90¢ |
| June 1, 2022 - June 30, 2022 | 6.58¢ |
| May 1, 2022 - May 31, 2022 | 5.37¢ |
| April 1, 2022 - April 30, 2022 | 5.37¢ |
| January 1, 2022 - March 31, 2022 | 5.08¢ |
| September 1, 2021 - December 31, 2021 | 5.20¢ |
| July 1, 2021 - August 31, 2021 | 6.24¢ |
| June 1, 2021 - June 30, 2021 | 6.38¢ |
| April 1, 2021 - May 31, 2021 | 4.88¢ |
| January 1, 2021 - March 31, 2021 | 4.81¢ |
Historic Residential Price to Compare Rate Chart – Illuminating Company
Remember, the price to compare changes periodically. By locking in a fixed rate with an alternative supplier, you get price protection.
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The Illuminating Company History
Founded in 1892 as the Cleveland General Electric Co., The Illuminating Company was known as Cleveland Electric Illuminating (CEI) for over 100 years.. The company grew out of a merger between Brush Electric Light & Power Co. and the Cleveland Electric Light Co. After changing its name in 1894, CEI launched its early years with a generating plant considered one of the most advanced at the time.
Its customer base steadily grew, serving 31,000 households and businesses by 1910, and by 1946, CEI acquired Cleveland Light & Power. Going a step further, CEI became a member of the Central Area Power Coordination Group in 1967, pooling its resources with Toledo Edison, Ohio Edison, Duquesne Light Co. and the Pennsylvania Power Co. to expand its facilities and capabilities.
In 1986, CEI merged with Toledo Edison to form Centerior. In 1997, Centerior combined with Ohio Edison and other affiliated companies to form FirstEnergy. First Energy Corp owns Toledo Edison, Ohio Edison, The Illuminating Company, three of the major utilities in Ohio.
No, United Illuminating and The Illuminating Company are not the same company. United Illuminating (UI) or the United Illuminating Company is a utility company in Connecticut. The Illuminating Company is an electric utility company in Ohio, primarily serving the Cleveland area.
The Illuminating Company’s Highlights
Electricity outages happen, but you don’t have to be left in the dark when they do. The Illuminating Company as a part of FirstEnergy has an extensive list of customer support services, a full-featured outage tracking and reporting system, and other features that customers appreciate. These include:
- Personal outage information. It doesn’t always take a big storm to cause an electrical outage, but it can still take time to get that outage fixed if the problem is a complicated one. Your online account with Illuminating Co. will keep you posted on the status of your personal outage, as well as when the line workers believe the electric outage will be resolved. Their online outage tracker also shows real-time information regarding outages.
- Storm preparation tips. Cleveland isn’t without its share of winter storms, but you don’t have to prepare for the next blizzard alone. FirstEnergy and the Illuminating Co. has designed a virtual storm center that includes storm preparation tips, information on their electricity restoration process and how to report an outage even if you don’t have access to the Internet.
- Severe weather alerts. If the weather looks threatening, Illuminating Co will let you know. All you have to do is sign up for email or text messages and you’ll be ahead of the storm, as well as the storm recovery once the wind stops blowing.
- Bill pay assistance. The Illuminating Company offers programs that help customers continue to receive power during periods of financial hardship. Among them, the Percentage of Income Payment Plan adjusts monthly bills based on earnings, and the Home Energy Assistance Program uses a grant from the Ohio Department of Development to help customers make up outstanding balances during the hottest and coldest months of the year.
- Medical needs assistance. The Critical Care Program helps households where at least one member uses life-sustaining equipment develop a backup plan for power outages. Additionally, if a doctor has certified the severity of your health condition, The Illuminating Company promises to delay service termination and give you time to pay a past-due balance.
- Extended due date. For current customers at least 60 years old or receiving Social Security or disability assistance, The Illuminating Company can push out your due date to help you catch up on bill payments.
Be in the know with your Ohio utility. All electric utilities experience downtimes, but knowing what’s going on and how much longer the power will be out can make the waiting a lot easier for the electricity customer. The Illuminating Company has proven that it makes customer communications a top priority.
Reference: Matt Sisson, “Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co.,” Cleveland Historical, accessed November 4, 2016, https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/20
