Village of Wauconda Supports Electricity Supply Choice
The Village of Wauconda has kicked off a campaign to educate community members on recent changes in Illinois legislation that enables residents and small businesses to choose their own supplier of electricity. “In the past, ComEd provided all three parts of your electric service: supply, transmission, and distribution,” stated Wauconda's Mayor Mark Knigge. “With this legislation, members of our community have the ability to ‘opt-in' to a competitive program - reducing their electricity supply charge on their ComEd bills.”
Although some Illinois municipalities are pursuing an electrical aggregation program by voter referendum, the Village has chosen to allow community members to make their own decisions regarding electrical savings programs. By enrolling in a savings program now, residents and small businesses can begin reducing the electrical supply portion of their bills by as much as 20% during their next billing period – a much shorter timeframe than municipal electrical aggregation where the earliest potential savings would be realized in August, 2012.
Wauconda's Mayor Mark F. Knigge is an active member of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, an organization that provides a forum through which the chief elected officials of the region cooperatively develop consensus on common public policy issues and multi-jurisdictional challenges. The Caucus has created an energy savings program through its ‘Clean Air Counts' campaign.
The Metropolitan Mayors Caucus is just one program available to residents and small businesses. The Illinois Commerce Commission has developed a comprehensive list of additional programs that are currently available. Knigge added, “The Village is encouraging its businesses and residents to fully investigate all options for saving money on their electric bills, which is why we created an informational webpage to help with the process.”
When customers enroll to obtain electricity from a different supplier, ComEd is still responsible for the transmission of that electricity to the local utility and to the business or home. This means that ComEd will still do the billing, maintain the service lines, and respond to power outages as the company has always done. The only change customers will see is a reduction in the cost of the electricity supply charge on their ComEd bill.
Please visit the Village's website at www.wauconda-il.gov for additional information regarding alternative electric suppliers.