After much discussion, the St. Charles City Council voted against extending a contract with the city’s current electricity provider, the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency, after the current agreement between St. Charles and the group expires in 2035.
On Monday, the City Council voted against renewing the contract at a special meeting of its Government Services Committee on Monday evening, meaning the matter will not advance to the City Council meeting next week for a vote. The Government Services Committee is a committee of the whole, meaning all City Council members sit on the panel.
St. Charles is one of 32 municipalities across Illinois that are part of IMEA, a nonprofit joint action agency that sells electric power to municipally-owned utilities, per its website. The city began purchasing partial electric power for its electric utility with IMEA in 1999, and entered into its current contract to get all of its electric power from IMEA in 2004, according to past reporting.
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The city’s contract is set to last for another 10 years, but IMEA previously told St. Charles it needed to decide by Aug. 19 whether it would extend its contract through 2055.
A similar situation is going on in Naperville, which has yet to renew its contract with IMEA, according to past reporting.
As of July 25, 29 of the 32 IMEA members had decided to extend their contracts, per the IMEA. The agency previously set an April 30 deadline, but granted an extension until Aug. 19.
But, on Monday, the renewal was defeated in St. Charles in a vote by the council, with only Ald. Ed Bessner voting for extending the contract with IMEA.
At the meeting, several members of the City Council thanked those involved in the discussions — IMEA, city staff, the energy consultant advising the city on its electric future and more.
Ald. David Pietryla said the decision was “not taken lightly,” and thanked citizens for reaching out about the contract.
“Six years I’ve been on council, this is the most vigorous debate, I think next to cannabis, (that) I think we had at this council,” Pietryla said.
One of the major concerns raised about the IMEA contract was the potential environmental impact of the city getting its electricity from the cooperative electric supplier.
One of IMEA’s primary suppliers is a downstate coal plant called Prairie State that was one of the top 10 biggest polluters in the country, according to 2023 data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Winnetka, another IMEA member, recently voted to continue its contract, despite concerns about the agency’s coal dependency, according to past reporting.
Now, St. Charles is tasked with determining how it will provide electricity to residents when its contract with IMEA expires.
Though the contract extends until at least Sept. 30, 2035, it can technically rollover annually until 2040, until terminated by written notice five years prior, per the agreement’s terms.
Previously, Shawn Kestler, the president of Kestler Energy Consulting, LLC, who had been advising the city on its power options in the lead-up to the recent vote, explained that the city could still negotiate with IMEA in the future and form a new contract. Or, it can seek a new electricity supplier entirely: by forming an agreement with an alternative provider, joining a different joint-action agency or self-supplying and managing all or some of its power supply.
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A competitive bid process to find an alternative power supplier would probably begin around 2029 or 2030, Kestler previously said. In that option, the city could have a say in the power supply mix, including requesting a higher percentage of renewable energy or requesting a net-zero emissions power supply. He noted that supplier Constellation Energy, for example, uses carbon-free nuclear power.
The city can’t know for sure what power costs will be in the future, but Kestler said he expects renewable energy costs to come down with time, according to past reporting.
A working group made up of city officials and staff, along with representatives from Tri Cities Clean Energy and the city’s independent energy consultant, also considered the possibility of the city joining a different cooperative supplier or self-supplying, but decided both options were impractical for the city, according to past reporting.
Returning to IMEA is not necessarily out of the question, Ald. Mark Foulkes noted at Monday’s meeting, saying that the city must be “open-minded” as it evaluates its options.
“We made a very logical decision today (that) at this moment in time is best for the city,” Foulkes said. “Down the road, this will be at us again at some point in time, and there is a lot that we learned from it. There is a lot that we’re going to continue to learn and gain information, and it’s great that we’re going to have that extra time to find what that right decision may be down the road.”
And, as the city considers the kind of electric provider it wants for its future, Ald. Jayme Muenz emphasized that now is an opportune time for the city to talk about its sustainability goals moving forward.
“We don’t currently have a sustainability plan,” Muenz said. “This is a great opportunity to look at that.”