Electric Aggregation Customers Should See Savings in Next Bill

Residents in the village of Channahon voted in favor of the village to act on their behalf and negotiate a lower cost for electricity in the village. Residents were automatically moved over to the provider First Energy.

But, when November bills came out, residents continued to see the ComEd rate.

"To the best of my knowledge, this next electric bill, which comes on the 15^th, everybody should experience their first savings on the billing," Channahon Village Manager Joe Pena said.

The savings for most homes who opted for First Energy should be noticeable. The rate for energy under First Energy is 4.83 cents a kilowatt hour. That is compared to Comed, which was was 8.32 cents a kilowatt hour.

"I do know that Comed will still continue to provide your bill and maintenance and energy to the lines," Pena said. "The only thing that First Energy is providing is the energy.

"The 42 percent savings that we kept talking about in the aggregation process was in the rate alone."

The process to get to this point was not as smooth and automatic as village officials expected.

"I do know that  there were a number of people who did not receive that notification from ComEd initially or from First Energy even," Pena said.

That meant that instead of automatically moving over to First Energy, residents had to call the company and ask to participate.

"Many people got in after the fact by calling First Energy." Pena said.

He said there could still be people who wanted to participate, but did not see automatic enrollment.

"If they were left off the first list, they just have to say they were left off and they want to be enrolled," Pena said.

The phone number they need to call is 866-636-3749.