Antioch contracts with ComEd as its new electricity supplier

Antioch residents and businesses will return to receiving their electricity from ComEd starting in June, under a new contract with village officials.

ComEd was not the cheapest option, Village Administrator James Keim said, but it was chosen based on the possibility that its rates will drop below the other options during the 12-month contract.

Keim said other suppliers offered a tenth of a cent better rate than ComEd's current summer rate, which runs through September.

Rates will be re-evaluated for October through May, according to the Citizens Utility Board, which predicts the rates will drop.

The village has secured a rate with ComEd of approximately eight cents per kilowatt hour for the summer. Other bidders offered a 7.9-cent per-kilowatt-hour rate to Antioch, he said.

"If everything stays the same, I calculated less than a dollar difference a month per a typical household," Keim said. "It isn't worth the risk to aggregate with another supplier."

Antioch's current two-year electrical aggregation contract with Integrys Energy Services is set to expire.

Keim said the contract with Integrys saved residents and businesses nearly $1 million in total.

"It represented a very large savings for the residents," he said. "More money in the pocket of taxpayers is always attractive."

Keim said Integrys started at a fixed rate of 5.2 cents per kilowatt hour. Since then, rates across the board have risen about two cents.

"Things change. This has no reflection on the village," Mayor Lawrence Hanson said at a village board meeting. "This is a reflection on the market."

Antioch had bids from Integrys, Homefield Energy and Constellation Energy for the new contract.

Residents and the businesses involved in the village's electrical aggregation program will have two billing cycles, beginning in June, if they would like to choose another supplier.

Keim said about 10 percent of those involved in the program chose an alternative supplier at the beginning of the contract with Integrys.

Those who do not choose to select another electricity supplier will enter into a 12 month contract with ComEd beginning in June.