Politics & Government

Village Gets Green Light to Shop for Power

Nearly 69 percent of La Grange Park voters say yes to electrical aggregation.

La Grange Park residents favored a proposal to allow the village to shop for electrical power on their behalf, by a margin of 5,558 to 3,454.

Approval of the March 20 referendum means the village will be able to negotiate for electrical power with suppliers on behalf of residential customers and small retail customers, without asking each customer individually. Group buying is expected to result in lower electrical bills for consumers.

on the ballot at a Dec. 13, 2011 village board meeting. The board had reservations, but ultimately voted 5-0 in favor of adding a referendum. Trustee Rimas Kozica voted present. 

Find out what's happening in La Grangewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Following passage of the referendum, the village is required to hold two public hearings before adopting a "Plan of Governance." Then all the affected customers would receive a card in the mail telling them how to opt out, six to eight weeks before the program is supposed to start. After getting the notice, customers would have two to three weeks to respond and opt out, or about a month before the start of the program.

ComEd would continue to distribute power along its grid, sending out one bill to customers and responding to outages.

Find out what's happening in La Grangewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

A change in state law in 2009 allows for municipal electrical aggregation. According to Crain's Chicago Business, more than 200 communities in Northern Illinois had the question on the March 20 ballot.


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