New Kane County electricity deal won't save residents quite as much money

Residents in unincorporated Kane County saved an average of $3.37 per month on their electricity bills the past couple years. That savings will shrink starting this month. But county officials said the new deal is still better than what most people pay for power.

Kane County created an electric aggregation program in June 2015. It involved a two-year contract with Dynegy Energy Services and guaranteed a fixed electric rate. County officials said Wednesday that deal saved unincorporated residents and businesses who stayed in the program a total of $301,000. Small businesses saved an average of about $810 over those two years. The deal concluded at the end of August.

The county inked a new deal with Baltimore-based Constellation NewEnergy, Inc., that begins this month. Like ComEd, Constellation is an Exelon company. Despite that relationship, Constellation agreed to a one-year deal with Kane County for a fixed electric rate of 7.08 cents per kilowatt hour. ComEd's rate will climb to 7.151 cents per kilowatt hour in October.

Several other local communities have electric aggregation contracts with Constellation. Those communities include Dundee Township, Hampshire and North Barrington.

Constellation also offers an opt-in program that allows customers to get energy from 100 percent renewable power sources. That program offers a fixed rate of 7.16 cents per kilowatt hour.

County officials said 11,736 residents in the unincorporated areas are enrolled into the Constellation plan. That's in line with what the county saw when introducing the Dynegy deal in 2015. The number of enrollees fell to about 9,850 by the end of the Dynegy deal as residents either moved or opted out of the plan. There are about 15,350 residents and businesses in the unincorporated areas.