Kane County urged to zap support for ComEd plan
The Illinois attorney general’s office and one of the state’s largest advocates for senior citizens is trying to get Kane County to flip the switch on support for ComEd’s pending $2.6 billion infrastructure plan.
County board members have debated the merits of the plan in several committee meetings. The full county board, though, has not signaled support or opposition in a formal resolution.
ComEd’s plan would create a “smart grid,” which would provide better information to consumers about their electricity usage. The theory is that knowledge will push customers to take steps to reduce their electric bills.
However, there are other aspects of the plan the Citizens Utility Board told the county will change the entire regulation system for both electric and gas utilities, leading to automatic rate hikes.
On Thursday, the attorney general’s office and the Illinois Chapter of AARP sent a letter to the county saying ComEd’s plan will negatively impact consumers throughout the county.
“We believe this legislation would hurt consumers’ pocketbooks at a time when they can least afford it,” the letter states. “It will give ComEd and other utilities a blank check to spend consumers’ money without adequate oversight, and will allow consumers’ utility bills to increase automatically every year. Consumers’ incomes do not increase every year, let alone automatically, and neither should the utilities’.”
ComEd officials said the letter is “misleading and simply wrong.”
“(The legislation) does not give ComEd an automatic rate hike,” ComEd Spokeswoman Alicia Zatkowski said in an email interview. “There is nothing ‘automatic’ about an annual Illinois Commerce Commission review of rates, after an 8½ month examination by interveners and the commission, and when any disallowances are paid back to consumers with interest.”
Zatkowski said ComEd’s plan will create 2,000 jobs and hold utilities accountable for infrastructure investment.
The dueling viewpoints come to Kane County as the Illinois General Assembly prepares to wrap up its session for the summer. The county board will meet Tuesday, the only time slated this month when the full board could take a formal position. After that, the issue is expected to be decided before the full county board meets again.
Board member Jesse Vazquez is the chairman of the board’s Legislative Committee. It’s overseen the bulk of the debate on ComEd’s plan. Vazquez said he’d like the county board to take a position, but it’s unlikely to do so.
“Unless a committee member says we need to do this now, I believe we’re just going to let the issue lie,” Vazquez said. “I get a sense that we’re all for the smart grid technology and getting new technology in place just in general. But the changes to the rate increase formula scares a lot of people. Unless they really negotiate something with that formula, I think everybody else on the consumer side is going to say no to it.”