Cary residents can decide to participate in electrical program for clean energy starting in October

The village of Cary is offering renewable energy for residents to use with no changes to their current ComEd rates.

The Village Board approved the electrical aggregation program June 20 to run for 12 months starting in October. The program will support more than 3 million kilowatts of green energy.

Cary residents started to receive letters last week informing them about the aggregation. Some received notices that require action to opt in and others require action to opt out. This gives residents the freedom to choose if they want to be a part of the clean energy program or not, and no one is forced into it.

No one is saving money, and no one is being charged more.”

—  Adam Hoover, NiMec strategic accounts manager

Residents who currently use ComEd as their power supplier have the option to opt out, otherwise they are automatically enrolled into the program. This is about 36% of households in Cary, said Adam Hoover, NiMec strategic accounts manager.

NiMec worked as a consultant with Cary and clean energy providers to create the aggregation program.

Whatever decision is made, there will be no changes to current rates, and residents will get their ComEd bill as normal, Cary Assistant Village Administrator Courtney Sage said.

Residents who use a different supplier or are on ComEd’s hourly rate have the option to opt in to the aggregation. Opting in would put ratepayers on the current ComEd rate.

The aggregation previously was in place from 2012 to 2017. There was a pause until now because renewable energy suppliers had rates higher than ComEd’s, Sage said.

“We never want to be above that ComEd rate,” she said.

The aggregation is a collaboration among the village of Cary, MC Squared Energy Services, ComEd and NiMec.

The program works by having the suppliers buy renewable energy credits to support Midwest-Wind generation facilities that put renewable energy into the state’s grid system.

RECs are a way for people to use renewable energy without having their own wind turbine or solar panels. Illinois wind turbines put clean energy into Illinois’ electric grid and get distributed anywhere that the grid reaches. RECs are a way to financially support clean energy systems, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“No one can direct a green energy electron to your house,” Hoover said.

RECs are not a surefire way to get an area to be completely green. According to a Washington Post article, there is little evidence that RECs help renewable energy sources to grow.

MC Squared Energy Services is a company based in Chicago that supplies alternative electricity from wind and solar sources.

Hoover described the company’s role as a consulate for the village. NiMec has worked with 100 municipalities in northern Illinois and helped with the bidding for Cary’s aggregation.

The village of Cary warned that no one will be contacting residents to enroll in person or by phone. If anyone claims to be part of the village, ComEd or MC Squared, residents are encouraged to report them to the ICC at www.icc.illinois.gov/complaints.

Hoover said he usually finds that 80% of residents just want to know whether it’s a scam.

“You may get a different letter than your neighbor,” Hoover said. “No one is saving money, and no one is being charged more.”