Committee: Frankfort Should Join County League to Negotiate Electricity Rates

Frankfort is close to joining a group of other Will County municipalities when it comes to electricity aggregation thanks to a recommendation Monday from the village's Land Use and Policy Committee. That recommendation now must be approved by at its Monday, April 30, meeting to become official.

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On March 20, . In advance of that referendum, the Will County Governmental League, a nonprofit organization that represents county cities, towns and villages in regional issues, . The village also has the option of trying to work out lower electricity rates on its own.

BOOKMARK: Find Out Everything You Need to Know About the Issue in Our Electricity Aggregation Section

Although voters approved electricity aggregation, residents can opt out and either stay with ComEd or try to find their own electricity supplier. Opt out noticies will be sent out once the league chooses a winning bid from a supplier.

Some of the reasons committee members cited for joining instead of going solo included:

• The league already has done much of the preliminary work in the process, including securing a broker, Texas-based DaCott Energy.
• Because of the amount of households it represents, the league would have more buying power and be able to negotiate a lower rate than the village could on its own. "At first we were 8,000 (households) in Frankfort, and now we'll be part of a group of more than 100,000," Mayor Jim Holland said at the meeting Monday.
• The partnership with the league would only be for a year, and the village could drop out at anytime without penalty, although it would still have to adhere to any agreement it had with an electricity provider for that year.

Village Administrator Jerry Ducay also said league members share similar concerns about procedural and ethical issues that Frankfort officials have about aggregation and, thanks to Holland, have incorporated certain assurances into the agreement. For instance, municipalities cannot profit from aggregation, and electricity suppliers are not allowed to make political contributions to any of the officials representing the participating league municipalities, Ducay said.

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The next step will be two public hearings to answer residents' questions on the issue. They are set for May 14 and 21. The league also will hold regional public hearings, but those dates and locations have not been determined, Ducay said.

YOUR TURN: Do you think it's a good idea for Frankfort to join the Will County Governmental League when it comes to electricity aggregation? Or should the village try it on its own? Share your thoughts in the comments section.