Palatine Referendum: Should Village Pursue Electric Aggregation?

A March referendum will ask residents whether Palatine should pursue electric aggregation in an effort to lower power costs.

If voters approve the measure, the village and six other suburban communities would join forces in an effort to increase their buying power and get a better deal on electricity.

"Back in 1997 the state implemented a plan to deregulate the energy industry in Illinois," Palatine Village Manager Reid Ottesen said. "Since that point in time many of the larger users have been able to go out and switch their energy suppliers. The village has done that and we have saved money by doing that."

Ottesen said a new law passed in 2010 allows the village to transfer electric accounts to alternate suppliers – essentially its posslble now for residents to be grouped together into a larger energy user.

"It would allow us to to aggregate or combine every one's energy needs in order to get the greatest savings," Ottesen said.

Palatine would join with Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Lincolnshire, Wheeling, Long Grove and Vernon Hills. Combined the communities have a population of about 263,000. Ottesen said Buffalo Grove would be the lead agency.

Ottesen said ComEd's rates have been about 7.9 cents per kilowatt hour during the summer and about 7.75 cents the rest of the year. Ottesen said other areas that have pursued aggregation have been able to reduce energy costs to residents by as much as 25.5 percent in the summer and about 24 percent the rest of the year.

Ottesen said that before the village can move forward, the law requires Palatine to go to referendum and ask residents if they favor aggregation. If approved, residents would not be required to leave their current energy supplier.

"This would not force anybody," Ottesen said. "A resident or small business would have the ability to say 'Leave me out of it I want to stay where I am."

If voters give the go ahead, Palatine and the other communities would have to decided if they wanted to use a consultant to assist in the bidding process. There also would be two public hearings on the issue.

ComEd would still be responsible for delivering the energy that would be coming from an alternate supplier.

Ottesen said that although approval of the referendum allows Palatine to move forward it does not require a switch to alternate energy suppliers if the bids that are received are not significantly lower.