Mt. Prospect trustee to lead state power agency
Mount Prospect Village Trustee Arlene Juracek was appointed by Gov. Pat Quinn Wednesday to direct the Illinois Power Agency.
Now retired, Juracek worked 34 years for ComEd. As director of the IPA, Juracek will develop and submit annual competitive electricity procurement plans, including the use of conventional and renewable energy and clean coal resources, to the Illinois Commerce Commission.
“Arlene Juracek’s decades of experience in the energy sector will be critical to fulfilling the Illinois Power Agency’s core mission of ensuring reliable and sustainable energy for Illinois families at the lowest cost,” Quinn said in a statement.
When Juracek retired in 2007 she was vice president of energy acquisition. Her career involved energy and transmission services acquisition, power station engineering, and strategic economic and policy analysis. She also worked on purchasing agreements for ComEd’s renewable resource activities, including wind power and other green energy sources.
Juracek is currently in her second term on the Mount Prospect village board and was formerly chairwoman of the village’s planning and zoning commission. She joined the village board as an appointed trustee in 1995.
Juracek said her new job won’t affect her ability to be a village trustee.
“It might make it a little harder to get to the meetings on time, but I’ll have to work on that,” she said, adding she has been assured by the village attorney that there is no conflict.
She said her situation is no different from that of Trustee Michael Zadel, who works for the state toll road authority.
Juracek said her new post is “a very interesting and unique position.”
She said she will be charged with coming up with an electricity procurement plan for ComEd and the downstate utilities jointly known as Ameren.
The origin of the power agency reaches back to the end of the electricity rate freeze in 2006. At the time, it was determined that rates for the electricity ComEd and Ameren delivered would be set by a declining price auction.
But people were not satisfied with the pricing resulting from the auction, since it was considered higher than one might get in the marketplace.
As a result, Illinois created a new state agency that was independent of the utilities and generating companies to handle the procurement for the ComEd and Ameren customers who had not chosen a competitive supplier.
“We come up with a procurement plan every year,” Juracek said. “We hire an independent third party to run the procurement. All of this is subject to Illinois Commerce Commission oversight and, ultimately, legislative oversight to ensure that we are getting power for the customers of the utilities that is reliable, efficient, cost-effective in the long run.
“And that includes some renewables and clean coal.”
She said the customers of these two utilities will see the direct impact of this procurement policy on their electricity bill.
Juracek said she was approached by Quinn’s staff a couple of months ago.
“I think what I like is that it builds on my past experience. It allows me to work with a lot of the same people that I worked with when I retired,” Juracek said. “But I’m at a different place in my life now, where I’m not climbing the career ladder.”
The appointment is for an indeterminate period, at the preference of the government, and is subject to Senate confirmation. She believes the matter is likely to come up in the November veto session.
Juracek said she will be paid more than $100,000 per year for the full-time job. The salary was determined in the legislation that created the agency.
“For the requirements of this job, it’s fairly moderate compensation,” she said. “It really makes finding somebody qualified to do this, other than someone who is a retired person, a little more difficult.
“People are going to look at that salary and say, ‘Holy smokes, I wish I made that much.’ But it is a highly specialized job and by statute it requires somebody with a specialized knowledge and experience.”