Village Board Will Consider Dropping ComEd At Tonight's Meeting

Northbrook’s board of trustees will consider the pros and cons of buying electricity from an alternate supplier at Tuesday night’s board meeting.

Along with seven neighboring communities, the village of Northbrook is looking into “electric aggregation,” a purchasing program that lets villages bundle residential and business accounts, then buy electricity in bulk from a ComEd competitor. A law passed in 2009 made such arrangements possible, and since then at least 19 Illinois municipalities have entered into agreements with alternative electric suppliers, which require a community vote by referendum. 

“If you just look at the bids that come back from other communities, it’s a cheaper bill for our residents,” said Kendal Dean, management analyst for the village of Northbrook. “We’re always looking to be fiscally responsible.”

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Among Illinois municipalities that have adopted electric aggregation are the villages of Oak Brook, Grayslake and Lincolnwood. Under an agreement with the electrical provider Integrys Energy Services Inc., residents and businesses can save 27 to 30 percent, on their electric bills, according to Oak Brook village manager David Niemeyer. 

Overall, that the switch could save his village $2.5 million a year if every customer opts in. 

Under an electric aggregation program, any residents or business owners can opt out and choose to remain with ComEd as a supplier or find their own supplier. Residents and businesses are already able to secure alternate arrangements with electric suppliers on an individual basis. In any situation, ComEd will still distribute the electricity, even if it doesn’t supply it. 

“Everything would still come from ComEd, as far as the bill, and if there’s an outage, ComEd is still the company to call because it’s their distribution system,” Dean said. “The savings would be on the supply, not on the distribution.”

In order to put the issue before Northbrook voters on the March 20, 2012 ballot, the board of trustees would have to adopt a resolution to approve it at least 79 days in advance, or before Jan. 3. If the referendum passes, the board of trustees would then hold two public hearings on a plan of governance for the new program before seeking bids from alternate energy suppliers.

Among the other villages considering partnering with Northbrook to save costs on electricity are Deerfield, Evanston, Highland Park, , , Park Ridge and Skokie. Highland Park’s board of trustees has already approved a referendum to go before its voters on the March 2012 ballot.

“Everyone’s pretty much on board, and they’ve talked about it with their board, it just hasn’t been formally approved yet,” said Dean.

If the board of trustees is favorable to the idea, village staff will prepare a draft referendum that trustees can vote on at the following village board meeting, Dec. 13.