Normal residents voted in November to allow their town to join other local communities in an electric aggregation run by Good Energy, an aggregation consulting firm. Like all of the other municipalities involved, all Normal residents were automatically opted in to the program, but offered a chance to opt out of the aggregation by mail. In order to qualify for the opt out, the opt out form needed to be postmarked no later than December 16. After just over a month, the results are finally in.
753 of the 14,534 Normal residents eligible to aggregate opted out. Compared to the aggregation opt out numbers from the spring, when roughly 10 percent of residents opted out of municipal aggregation, this is a great sign. Communications specialist Samantha Hager of Homefield Energy says she is not surprised by the outcome, explaining that “with education and awareness we expected that number to diminish.”
Homefield Energy is a Collinsville based subsidiary of Ameren that works independently of Ameren Illinois. They won the bid for Normal residents, and also for the residents of the other 51 communities who bid together through Good Energy in December. Homefield offered rates of about 4 cents per kilowatt for the length of the contract. Pleased with the result, Good Energy CEO Maximilian Hoover is happy to have helped the nearly 14,000 residents who opted in to the aggregation.
More municipalities will be putting aggregation to a vote in April. And for many, it will be a second chance at aggregation. Many communities have requested a second chance to vote, based upon the savings noted in surrounding communities.
For more information on municipal aggregation, click here. For the full article, see below.
