Illinois regulators reduced Nicor’s rate increase ask by about half Wednesday.

The utility company requested a $314.3 million rate increase, but regulators cut $146.5 million from it, the Illinois Commerce Commission said in a news release.

The company had also requested a 10.35% return on equity, a way to measure returns to stakeholders. The ICC approved a 9.6% return on equity.

“The ICC’s responsibility is to balance the interests of Illinois’ utilities and their consumers. We recognize that any decision impacting Illinoisans’ bills is not a small one, and after careful review of Nicor’s proposed investments, the Commission opted to strike excess charges and approve necessary and justified projects,” ICC Chairman Doug Scott said in the release.

Nicor was also directed to maintain a 3% energy burden, a nationally recognized measure of affordability, for all customers by adjusting its low-income discount, according to the release.

The Citizens Utility Board said in a statement it was “thankful” the state commission “responded by derailing Nicor’s bid to raid consumers for costs that were blatantly inflated and unwarranted. In shrinking Nicor’s requested $314 million increase by more than half, the ICC’s ruling today exceeds the reduction recommended by two administrative law judges last month by an ample margin and reaffirms the Commission’s commitment to holding utilities accountable for every expense they attempt to charge consumers.”

The CUB said Nicor customers have had four previous rate hikes in the last eight years and said the utility’s parent company has made $25 billion in profits in that time.

“Today’s decision provides important oversight to constrain spending and protect ratepayers from energy infrastructure costs they might otherwise fund for decades. In all rate cases, the legal burden of proof falls to the utilities, and many of the specific disallowances made to Nicor’s proposed investments were made to projects where the utility failed to sufficiently articulate management decisions, including the need, timing, and pace of the proposed projects,” according to the ICC release.

The impact of the decision on customers varies based on service class and energy usage, the commission said.

The commission also cut $55.8 million from Ameren Illinois’ rate request increase. The company had originally asked for a $128.8 million, according to the commission. Ameren also got a 9.6% return on equity, below the 10.7% it had requested.