Vote NO to Electrical Aggravation

Put the following search terms in The Google: “electrical aggregation illinois ballot”

There’s 4,280 results. Hinsdale, Cary, Darien, Lincoln, Franklin Grove, Lake County are all on the first page of results for having a referendum on electrical aggregation on their 2012 elections ballot. There’s a couple of consulting experts that made the first page. If you are a municipality or county board they’ll probably accept rush orders for their services to help you get a referendum for your community. Everybody’s in unless you personally Opt Out if the referendum passes.

It’s the best thing since sliced bread. HT/RH

Remember Y2K? It was The Golden Goose for municipal consultants of its time. I’m still not sure what Y2K was. Something like a tonsil or gall bladder. Some organ the computer didn’t really need but you had to pay a lot to get the threat removed.

That’s what Electrical Aggregation smells like. Y2K.

Allegedly, it’s really about local municipalities lowering their residents electric costs.  According to the newly formed Illinois Municipal Aggregation of Electric organization, “By aggregating your residents total power usage you can create the scale needed to reduce their supply costs while ensuring the same reliable delivery service continues to be provided by the utility (ComEd and Ameren).”

I’ve never lived in a local municipality that was concerned about lowering my electric costs. They’re usually debating how much their going to increase their fee and/or tax for whatever scale they need at the time.

I live in the Home Rule city of DeKalb. We’ve got aldermen who say things like, “there’s more than one way to skin a cat.” It would be more likely for them to want to out smart the meter and get it to regulate the thermostat on our beer coolers and then charge us for the inconvenience. Lower my costs, you say.

If the referendum passed I’d probably Opt Out as quick as I could. But wait. Hold on. The county board put an Electrical Aggregation Question on their portion of the ballot. What if both referendums pass? How many Opt Out For Free Cards do I get? Or do I have to pick my poison?

A couple of questions I think the local pols should be asked.

1) Who all will receive commission, percentage, fees or taxes, etc., including local governments from their proposed municipal electrical aggregation plan? How much and what for?

2) What regulations, if any, do the corporate authorities have the ability to enact should the referendum pass?

There’s a lot of questions about electrical aggregation, really. So I went back to The Google. I entered “electricity aggregation consultants.” There were 603,400 results. That’s a lot of mouths to feed.