After nearly four years, Wilmette will opt out of an electrical aggregation program in May because, village officials say, it doesn’t provide enough savings for residents.
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John Prejzner, assistant to the Wilmette village manager, said all three members of the Lakeshore Power Alliance – Wilmette, Glenview and Northfield – have agreed to end the program, under which they combined to choose an electric power producer that supplied power for their residents at lower rates than Commonwealth Edison Co.
Trustees approved the decision to end village participation in the program in February, after Alliance officials analyzed the program’s shrinking savings last year and the Village Board’s administration committee endorsed their findings.
While the program did generate more than $4.6 million in electrical bill savings for residents and some small businesses, most of those savings came in the first years of the program, which started in August 2012, Prejzner said.
In the first year that the Alliance purchased electrical power from MC Squared Energy Services, a Wilmette customer could have saved up to $400, Prejzner said in a February report to village trustees. This year, the potential savings dropped to less than $5 per household, he said.
The drop happened because state regulations governing how ComEd sets its own rates have changed, effectively lowering those rates, Prejzner said.
Wilmette joined the Alliance after voters approved the aggregation program by referendum in March 2012. The village’s portion of the alliance is known as the Wilmette Power Purchasing Program, or WP3, which serves an estimated 9,300 village households and some small businesses.
The first contract with MC Squared ran from August 2012 to May 2015, and the Village Board approved a one-year extension of the deal last year.
Village officials predicted in 2012 that power provision rate differences between ComEd and other companies would eventually disappear.
“At some point, it may make more sense to return everyone to ComEd rather than run our own program,” Village Manager Tim Frenzer said in a March 2012 community meeting. “But until then, the idea is that we can effect a plan that benefits our residents.”
Prejzner said all three Alliance members have let residents know they will be reverting back to ComEd power provision rates after the May billing cycle. Wilmette’s letters went out March 1.
“People have been calling,” he said. “They’re curious about why we’re doing it, so we explain to them.”
If residents want to stay with MC Squared, they can choose to opt into that company’s rates, Prejzner said, or they can choose another supplier. Residents don’t need to deal with the village to make those decisions, and should contact their chosen suppliers themselves, he said.
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