Village Powering Up for Electrical Aggregation

The held the first of two public hearings on electrical aggregation Monday night, during the board's regular meeting. During the hearing—which no residents attended—Assistant Village Administrator Kirk Zoellner discussed the next steps the Village will be taking, toward electrical aggregation.

The Village took a “neutral position,” on aggregation and let the residents decide if Mokena would go to aggregation by placing a referendum on the March ballot, which .

Moving forward, the Village will solicit bids for power from various electrical producers, with bids to be turned in by early June. The bids will have several stipulations that could push the price up slightly, but Zoellner said that the choice to add those stipulations was to help residents, even if it does push the bottom line higher.

The stipulations for the bids include a 'no switching' or early termination fee clause and a price match guarantee.

“It could have a slight impact [on price], but we don't expect it to have a huge impact,” Zoellner said. “I think the overriding factor the board was concerned with was making sure that we have maximum flexibility with the plans, instead of going with the bargain basement price.”

Once bids are secured the board will vote on which source the Village will use, with the help of NIMEC, and then sign a one-, two- or three-year contract with the chosen supplier.

A Plan of Operation and Governance concerning electrical aggregation is available for public study at the . The next public hearing on electrical aggregation will be May 29, during the next Village Board meeting.