ComEd ‘smart meter’ program criticized at Buffalo Grove meeting

In a meeting that touched on the topic of electricity, one Buffalo Grove trustee generated a little electricity of his own.

During the reports from trustees at this week’s village board meeting, Jeffrey Berman launched an attack on ComEd’s proposal for its “smart grid” system, specifically the delay in delivering the benefits of smart grid to Buffalo Grove residents.

Noting that ComEd has submitted its smart grid plan to the Illinois Commerce Commission on the cusp of the summer storm season, Berman said, “The bottom line of their proposed plan is that ComEd is looking to have nearly the entire $2.6 billion rate increase, which was approved by the state legislature last fall for that so-called smart grid, collected from rate payers in the next five years. But — there is always a catch — customers served by ComEd’s Libertyville service center, which includes Buffalo Grove, will not receive Smart Grid installation, according to the plan, until 2019.”

That means, Berman said, ComEd wants Buffalo Grove residents to pay increased rates for infrastructure for at least the next seven years before the area sees any benefit.

There have been varying estimates of the cost to customers of the system, and ComEd’s estimate is much smaller than the one Berman used. The utility estimates it will increase the average bill $36 a year, but says that because of efficiencies that will come with smart meters, the system actually will save people money over time.

ComEd did confirm that Buffalo Grove is toward the end of the utility’s 10-year rollout.

Ross Hemphill, ComEd vice president of regulatory policy and strategy, said that because the meters are interactive and because a pilot program was launched out of its Maywood region, one of 19 regions in its service territory, meters will be added in contiguous areas. Altogether, 4,029,000 meters will be deployed by 2021.

The meters, he said, will result in immediate operational cost savings, even to some degree for communities like Buffalo Grove that will not receive the meters until much later.

He provided one example of savings: what is currently known as “unaccounted for energy” billed to all customers when meters are left on even while properties are between tenants because it’s not cost-effective to send a crew out to shut them off.

“Because they’re able to be remotely read and remotely switched on and off (with smart meters), it has tremendous savings that comes from that,” he said. Over a 20-year period, it would amount to $542 million dollars, he said.

Berman said the Illinois Commerce Commission currently is reviewing the smart grid proposal and he urged residents to contact their legislators or the ICC to make sure ComEd treats all communities in a fair manner in how it charges for and implements the system.

Berman’s comments came during a meeting when Deputy Village Manager Ghida Neukirch was touting the benefits of the rates the village would experience under electrical aggregation, which was recently approved by voters in a referendum.

Neukirch said the village, along with others in its consortium, secured a rate of 4.775 cents per kilowatt hour from an alternative energy supplier, compared to ComEd’s April residential supply rate of 8.233 cents per kilowatt hour, a 42 percent savings. She said customers in the village save $490,000 a month with the program.