Mt. Vernon, IL – Voters in twenty-seven Illinois communities recently approved electricity aggregation referendums and have secured a winning bidder and rate for their electricity supply. Homefield Energy was chosen by the communities of Addieville, Albion, Alma, Bridgeport, Cisne, Coalton, Edinburg, East Gillespie, Farina, Farmersville, Irvington, Kell, Lawrence County, Mulberry Grove, St. Francisville, Sigel, Richview, Raymond, Norris City, Stewardson, Sumner, Strasburg, Venedy, Windsor, Sorento, Waggoner and Wamac to serve the electricity aggregation program. A rate of $0.04388 cents/kwh was secured for a period of 9 months beginning with customer’s September, 2014, billing cycle. The rate is guaranteed through June, 2015.
Mt. Vernon, IL based Affordable Gas & Electric is the consultant for the collective group of communities and administered the bidding process. Homefield Energy’s bid was selected over Constellation who submitted a bid price for the 9 month rate of $0.0492 cents/kwh. Both Homefield and Constellation were chosen as the final two suppliers from an initial list of 5 bidding suppliers.
The nine month rate secured is below the current Ameren price to compare listed on the Plug In Illinois website. The Ameren price to compare is listed at $0.04657 currently versus the $0.04388 rate secured by AGE. Competitive supply rates for individual shoppers seeking a rate on their own are listed on the same website and begin at $0.05504 and extend much higher.
The rate secured for nine months lines up this group of twenty-seven communities with twenty-eight other communities represented by Affordable Gas & Electric. All fifty-five communities will now be joined into a larger pool and negotiations will begin immediately to seek a bids for renewal beyond June of 2015 when all communities will be set to expire.
“We have been very patient with the market. A recent run-up in pricing due to last winter’s cold spell led us to recommend to our communities that they advise their residents to stay with Ameren until market conditions dictated otherwise” said Jeff Haarmann, Managing Partner of AGE. “Our patience paid off and we were able to monitor a three week slide in prices and secure a rate that allows us to join all of our communities together, further increase our negotiating power with our suppliers.”
Residents will begin receiving mailers from Homefield Energy on “city letterhead” with details of the enrollment process. Residents are advised that they will automatically be included in the new lower rate. There is no response or additional actions that need to be taken by residents. Notices detailing how a resident can “opt-out” of the city-wide rate will be included in the mailing.
For customers who are already on a competitive supply with another supplier, those residents will need to contact AGE or Homefield to be included in the city-wide rate. Residents can contact AGE or Homefield prior to their current expiration for seemless transition to the city-wide rate upon expiration.
Residents are also advised that they will receive a separate mail piece from Ameren. That piece will state that they are being switched to Homefield Energy as their new supplier. This is a mandatory mailing from Ameren that states Homefield is the supplier chosen. The letter is sometimes confusing because customers think they are being switched away from Ameren. All residents will remain Ameren customers and will continue to be billed from Ameren as well as calling Ameren for any customer service issues. The new aggregation rate applies only to the “supply” or electricity used, which is now contracted at a new lower rate.
Customers who have questions about the enrollment process are encouraged to Homefield Energy at 866-694-1262.