Naperville leaders are weighing a major change to the city’s energy future: whether to sell the municipal electric utility to ComEd when the city’s contract with the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency ends in 2035.
The debate is about more than who sends the bill. It could shape electricity rates, service quality, and how much local control the community retains over a basic public need.
Here’s what to know
One option still before city leaders is turning Naperville’s electric utility over to ComEd, but City Manager Doug Krieger told the City Council that such a move would greatly shrink the city’s role in major electricity decisions, according to the Chicago Tribune.
As Naperville looks beyond the end of its Illinois Municipal Electric Agency contract in 2035, officials are preparing for a Sept. 28 strategy workshop by examining several alternatives. Those possibilities include selling the utility, joining or creating a different joint action agency, or buying power through the wholesale market either with city-owned generation and storage or without those assets…