Hoffman Estates moving forward with electric aggregation

The Hoffman Estates village board approved an electric aggregation plan Monday and gave its consultant the go-ahead to start seeking power supplier’s bids on the village’s behalf.

The consultant, the Northern Illinois Municipal Electric Collaborative (NIMEC), is considering grouping Hoffman Estates with the villages of Bradley, Montgomery and Lombard when obtaining bids to get the best prices.

Assistant Village Manager Dan O’Malley said the village’s process is different from what a local consortium of municipalities — including Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Lincolnshire, Long Grove, Palatine, Vernon Hills and Wheeling — is doing.

“They pooled together, and they’re going to have a single contract that they will all follow,” he said. “We’re all going to end up at the same place but we won’t have the same contract as the other communities we are together with for the bid portion.”

Village trustees on Monday discussed various contract options, including whether to require a certain amount of “green” energy and whether to accept a civic contribution — an annual payment from the electric supplier based on enrollment and/or power usage.

“We have to try to balance between the best rate for the residents and trying to keep in line with our sustainability goals and purchase green power,” O’Malley said.

No trustees offered opposition to accepting a civic contribution, which is slated to be used toward the village’s sustainability program.

Trustee Gary Pilafas, however, expressed concerns about how the village can measure green energy.

“If we’re paying for green how do we know we’re actually getting green?” he asked, later questioning whether such a requirement would merely be a “feel-good” measure.

David Hoover, executive director of NIMEC, explained that Hoffman Estates will not receive power directly from a “green” source like a wind farm because power lines cannot be stringed directly from a farm to the village.

“It’s a way for you to participate in green by subsidizing the actual purchaser of the green power,” he said of requiring a certain percentage of the electric supply to be green. “We’re paying the purchaser of that power ... and we’re kind of defraying their costs.”

Trustee Karen Mills said wants to be sure that the contract will give residents the opportunity to opt out of the program at any time without paying a fee.

“I have no problem going with up to a three-year contract as long as that stipulation is in there that residents will not be penalized in any way,” she said.

NIMEC is expected to start bidding for Hoffman Estates by the end of next week.