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Indian Head Park chooses electrical supplier
Charged up
New vendor: 4.899 cents per kilowatt hour
ComEd summer rate: 7.481 cents per kilowatt hour
Average use: 600 kilowatt hours per month
Date for switch: May
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Updated: April 8, 2013 6:22AM
INDIAN HEAD PARK — The Indian Head Park Village Board expects residents will save an average of $15 per month on their electrical bills by switching from ComEd to a new supplier.
The Village Board unanimously agreed Feb. 28 to buy electricity from Constellation New Energy for a year’s period at the rate of 4.899 cents per kilowatt hour for both homes and businesses.
This compares with the ComEd non-summer rate of 7.491 cents per kilowatt hour.
Village officials reported customers in Indian Head Park use an average of 600 kilowatt hours per month. Using this amount and the two different rates, officials estimate residential customers who pay an average of $44.95 per month to ComEd would pay $29.39 monthly to Constellation. Larger homes that use more electricity obviously would have higher electric bills, Village President Richard Andrews said.
Three companies bid on the contract to provide electricity for customers in Indian Head Park. The lowest bidder for residential customers was Reliant Energy, which proposed rates of 4.897 cents per kilowatt hour for homes and 5.166 cents for commercial customers. Reliant, however, had the lowest rating of the three suppliers on a scorecard maintained by the Illinois Commerce Commission, based on informal customer complaints, regardless of whether the supplier was found to be at fault.
Village officials will meet with Constellation representatives to iron out the details. The target date for the switch is May, said village attorney Richard Ramello.
ComEd’s parent company Exelon is expected to lower its rates in July. In the event ComEd’s rates drop below Constellation’s, customers may switch back to ComEd without a penalty, Ramello said.
All three suppliers’ one-year rate was cheaper than their two- and three-year rates, “because of the uncertainty in the power market,” Ramello said. The longer the term, the greater the risk, “so to cover their risk, they have to charge a higher rate.”
Residents automatically will be switched to Constellation, unless they notify the company they do not want to switch.
Customers also have the option of buying electricity produced with a larger share of renewable sources. Constellation’s base rate of 4.899 cents will be produced with at least 9 percent renewable sources, as the state requires. The rates for from 25 to 100 percent renewable sources will range from 4.917 cents to 4.971 cents per kilowatt hours.
