What's Next? Du Quoin and Pinckneyville Should Seek Only Short Term Electric Deals

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Du Quoin and Pinckneyville residents were not alone in approving measures to find cheaper electrical service.

Measures giving local officials power to negotiate for lower-priced electricity have passed in most of the nearly 300 Illinois towns where they were on the ballot, and residents and small businesses can expect the communities to move quickly to try to cut cheaper deals.

That's because the higher Ameren Illinois and Commonwealth Edison rates that officials are betting they can beat are likely to drop over the next 15 months or so, according to the Citizens Utility Board, a consumer advocacy group. Long-term contracts signed by the two major Illinois utilities several years ago, locking in higher rates, are due to expire by next summer.

Just over 15 percent of the voters (611 of 3,920) in Du Quoin and 24 percent of the voters (542 of 2,228) in Pinckneyville turned out Tuesday to cast their votes on the question of electric aggregation.

In Du Quoin, 331 or 58.9 percent of voters were in favor of electric aggregation. Across the Beaucoup, the numbers were similar with 287 or 59.05 percent in favor of electric aggregation.

The next step for both municipalities is to hammer out an intergovernmental agreement that will govern how they work together to negotiate reduced electricity rates for residents.

Consumers in towns where the measures have passed will likely see lower rates in the short run.

''You would almost have to try not to save some money'' compared to utility prices that are currently locked at 20-30 percent more than market rates, said David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board.

The question, he said, is what happens after that.

By late Wednesday, the board had checked on the bulk of the electricity aggregation measures that were on Tuesday's ballot and found about three-quarters of the nearly 300 had passed, Kolata said.

The rush of towns putting the measures before voters followed a move last year by about 20 northern Illinois towns. The board says all of the earlier measures have saved local residents and small businesses money, $9 to $14 a month.

Communities where the measures passed will now start putting together plans and looking for bids from power providers.

By law, towns must have two public hearings before moving ahead, and residents will have two chances to opt out: when the local government sends out a letter telling residents that their electricity supplier is going to change, and again when the local government mails notice that the supplier has changed.

But some things won't change in the communities where aggregation measures passed. Customers would still be billed by Ameren or ComEd, depending on which of the utilities they use now, because those companies would continue to deliver the power and be responsible for outages or other problems.

In Champaign, public works director Dennis Schmidt expects to have a plan and bids for the City Council to consider by mid-May.

''I think everybody agrees that there's some savings to be had here,'' he said.

But Schmidt said no one knows what will happen after the long-term deals signed by the utilities expire. ''You tell me what the economy's going to be a year from now,'' he said.

In the meantime, Kolata said, communities should probably sign only short-term deals and look for opportunities to potentially save even more money as Ameren and ComEd rates possibly become more competitive with the rates of new suppliers.