Oak Brook seeking better energy deal

Oak Brook residents will vote in April on whether to allow the village to start shopping for a cheaper source of electricity.

A 2009 law allows municipalities to seek bids from competing energy companies on behalf of residents and small businesses, but voters must give the go-ahead first.

The program, called Community Choice Aggregation, uses the power of a “buying group” to negotiate a better deal.

Ohio-based FirstEnergy Solutions is in discussions with both Oak Brook and Oak Park, where the question also is on the April ballot. The company guarantees its Ohio consumers a savings of 6 percent off the utility’s price, spokeswoman Diane Francis said.

It’s too soon in the process to tell how much Oak Brook consumers could save, she said.

“I don’t know if we will know until we actually go out to bid (whether it will be worth it),” Village Manager David Niemeyer said. “If there is not a lot of savings or no savings, we can defer it for a year and try again.”

Here’s how community aggregation works: The village would seek bids from competitors to Exelon, ComEd’s parent company, which now supplies its electricity. If the village finds a better deal, the new company would provide power to all residents and small businesses, except those who choose to opt out.

Electricity customers would still pay ComEd to distribute the power, maintain power lines and send out bills. If there’s a power outage, it’s still the ComEd truck that will come out to do the repairs.

“None of that would change,” Niemeyer said.

FirstEnergy Solutions is just one of the power companies that might wind up bidding for Oak Brook’s business. The Ohio company has 17 power plants — including nuclear, coal and hydro — mostly in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Oak Brook’s big companies already have the purchasing power to negotiate better prices for electricity. This program would give smaller business and residents the same opportunity, officials said.