Voters Say Yes to Electrical Aggregation

residents said yes to giving the village board authority to negotiate electricity rates on their behalf by approving an on the Tuesday primary ballot.

The measure passed 1,788 to 1,574, or 53.2 percent of the vote to 46.8 percent.

The 214-vote difference was not nearly as close as some neighboring towns. Channahon approved the referendum by just nine votes; in Braidwood, it was seven.

However, the village was in the majority when it came to the overall number of communities that authorized their governments to pursue electrical aggregation, a practice through which a municipality negotiates an electric rate on behalf of all its residents.

The thinking is the higher the number of customers represented, the better the odds that lower the rate can be secured from one of the many companies that sell electricity in addition to ComEd. In simpler terms, a group of 10,000 customers stands a better chance of getting a lower rate than someone negotiating on his or her own.

Of the nearly two dozen towns that had the referendum on the ballot, only four rejected it: Joliet, Lockport, Minooka and Monee. Voters in the unincorporated sections of Will County also said no.

Just because the measure has passed, however, does not automatically mean rates will go down or even that the village will try to negotiate a better deal. It simply means that voters have given the village board the authority to pursue the action if they think it's in the best interest of Plainfield.

Conversely, if the village does lower rates, a resident can "opt out" of the deal if they so choose and stay with their current plan.

And even if a new electricity provider is chosen, ComEd stays in the picture because it will still be responsible for sending out bills and handling equipment failures and maintenance.