Glen Ellyn strikes deal with ComEd alternative

Is Glen Ellyn bucking the trend by sticking with an alternative power supplier rather than ComEd?

Not exactly, says David Hoover, executive director of the Northern Illinois Municipal Electric Collaborative, which manages about 120 electrical aggregation programs in the region and negotiates bids on behalf of communities.

To get a sense of the fluid marketplace, roughly 25 towns in the collaborative switched back to ComEd in 2014.

About half of those municipalities are now returning to aggregation, Hoover said.

The reasons are complex, but partly have to do with lower prices in the overall commodity market, Hoover said.

Towns got on the electrical aggregation bandwagon several years ago, enjoying major savings with providers other than ComEd. The average Glen Ellyn resident, for instance, has pocketed nearly $200 since voters approved the program in November 2012.

While ComEd has since narrowed the gap, the village will continue to contract with FirstEnergy under a pact expected to save customers about $30 from September through May 2016.

The supplier will match ComEd's blended rate released every May (a four-month, fixed summer rate and an eight-month projected rate).

Starting on their September bills, residents and small business owners will be charged 7.13 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with the 7.5 cents FirstEnergy charges now.

One trade-off? FirstEnergy won't allow a villagewide opt-out of the program, but individual residents can still shop around for other providers. The village found that alternative suppliers no longer offer that option for new contracts. Under its existing agreement, the village could terminate the contract with FirstEnergy without a penalty if ComEd's rates fell below the aggregation prices.

"We've been told it just creates too much variability in terms of too much risk is being placed on the supplier from their vantage point," Assistant Village Manager Al Stonitsch said.

FirstEnergy also will continue to charge a slight premium for subsidizing renewable energy suppliers, an investment equivalent to 100 percent of the village's load.

"There is a value in that especially when you consider the village's environmental commission recommended that the village stay with the 100 percent energy program," Stonitsch said.

A letter will alert Glen Ellyn customers to the new terms in the contract.